Blood of His Blood
by Honorary Raven
Summary: Abe Mazur has made plenty of enemies throughout his life. Moroi and strigoi would love to see him suffer for the things that he's done. When they find out that he has a daughter - the infamous Rose Hathaway - they set their sights on her. Rated M for later scenes containing adult language and themes of sexual violence.
1. Chapter 1

"Dimitri have you seen my... Oh, never mind. I've found it." I called from the bedroom. I stuffed my iPod in to my pocket and went in to the living room where he was reading one of his Western novels. He was sprawled out on the sofa like a king, one arm supporting the back of his head as the other head his book. He turned the page skilfully with one thumb and then looked up to me. He frowned when he saw that I was in my workout clothes and sat up, placing his book on the coffee table.  
"Where are you going, Roza?"  
I held my hand up and stopped him from going any further. "I know what you're going to say, but hear me out. It's been weeks since I was shot, I'm healed and I'm going crazy sitting in the apartment all the time. I need to get back out there before I get out of shape."  
"Your shape is perfect, Roza."  
I ignored his compliment and continued. "If I get out of shape, I won't be able to guard Liss and then I'll be no good to anyone."  
He stood up and in three strides he was standing in front of me. "You're not ready. You still have another two weeks of rest and then you have to ease back in to things. You can't rush the healing process."  
"I'm healed." I lifted my top up to show him my scar and his eyes filled with pain and sadness as they always did when he saw it. "See?"  
He took my T shirt in his hands and pulled it back down so that he couldn't see the scar any more and frowned. "Roza, you need more time. What if I order us a pizza and we put a movie on? You can pick whichever one you want?"  
"Even The Notebook?"  
He shook his head and chuckled. "Yes, Roza. Even The Notebook."  
"Okay." I murmured as he pressed his lips against my temple and went to the kitchen.  
I went over to the front door and took my key off the hook, being careful that it didn't make a sound as I clutched it in my fist. I opened the door, knowing that Dimitri would be furious when he came back and saw that I was gone, and crept out, closing it quietly behind me.  
I didn't stick around long enough to find out whether or not he'd heard me leave, I just sprinted down the corridor as quickly as I could, not stopping until I was out of our building. I bent over, resting my hands on my knees as I gulped in as much air as I could. I knew that I was right; spending six weeks lounging around with Dimitri, eating pizza and donuts, had done me no good at all. And yet he still wanted me to spend another two weeks at home.  
To be fair, Dimitri spent every one of those six weeks with me. He'd taken some time off and taken me to all of my appointments and made sure that I was healing properly. He'd made me wait until my stitches had been removed before he touched me in anything other than a supportive way and even then he'd made us take baby steps. We hadn't been past third base in six weeks and it was killing me. I needed a little time in the gym to work out all the tension and frustration that was building up inside me.  
I didn't hang around too long, figuring that if I was already at the gym, he couldn't drag me home. As soon as my breathing had settled to an almost normal rate, I made my way through Court and headed straight there. I pushed the door to the gym open and let it lose behind me, made my way over to the warm up area and started stretching. I was surprised at how difficult it was. My muscles didn't react the way that they had before the shooting and I was nowhere near as flexible.  
"Rose? What are you doing here?" Eddie's familiar voice asked from behind me.  
I turned around and smiled up at him. "Am I not allowed to be here?"  
"Not according to Dimitri."  
"Yeah, well, he isn't here."  
"Should you be?" He asked, his face full of concern.  
"I'm fine, Eddie. I've got to get back in to it sooner or later."  
"Maybe later would be best."  
"The longer I leave it, the harder it's going to be. Now, are you going to help me or just lecture me?"  
"I'm not lecturing you, Rose. I'm worried about you."  
"Don't be. I'm fine."  
"You know, I learned a long time ago that when a woman says she fine, it means that she absolutely isn't." He held his hand out to me and helped me to stand up. "Let's just take it slowly, okay?"  
"Fine." I groaned.  
Eddie helped me stretch and we were just about to run a few laps when the door to the gym opened and everyone turned to look at it. Eddie and I followed suit, my heart dropping when I saw him. My Russian jailer had come to take me back to my prison. He gently took hold of my elbow, nodded to Eddie, and led me outside.  
"I thought we agreed that you were going to stay at home?"  
"You agreed, Comrade. I made no promises."  
"Roza, this isn't a game. This is your health."  
"My health is fine."  
"Then you won't mind if I take you to the doctors for a second opinion." He folded his arms across his chest and I knew better than to argue with him. "Your appointment is at ten o'clock tomorrow morning."  
"Dimitri-"  
He reached out and stroked my cheek gently. "I can't let you risk your health, Roza. You're too important to me."  
I was going to tell him that I risked my health, and my life, every day as guardian but decided that now wasn't the time. If it would make him happy, I'd go to the doctors. "Okay."  
"Promise me, Roza. There are no loopholes."  
"I promise." I said, going up on to my tiptoes to kiss him. "Let's go home."  
"The pizza will be cold by now." He said with a raised eyebrow. Ugh, I hated it when he did that. It made him even more handsome and I was insanely jealous because I'd never been able to do it.  
"We'll warm it up."

I was surprised that Dimitri still let me pick the movie but he sat beside with me his arm over my shoulders as we watched The Notebook and ate an entire pizza. It was more like Dimitri had two slices and I had the rest, but who was counting?  
I paused the movie and went to the bathroom and to change in to my pyjamas. Dimitri tidied away the pizza box and told me to hurry back. I'd never been able to make it through an entire movie without needing to move around. Dimitri said it was because I was so used to do something that doing nothing was difficult.  
I went it to the bedroom and started to undress when I noticed something on my pillow. It was a white envelope with 'Rose' written neatly on the front. I opened it up and stared down at the piece of paper. The words 'Rosie, Rosie, give me your answer do' had been cut out of magazines and stuck to down. A chill ran down my spine as I read them, though I wasn't sure why. The words weren't particularly threatening and they didn't mean anything to me. I pulled my jacket out of the wardrobe and threw it on, shoved the envelope in to my back pocket and headed out of the bedroom.  
"Is everything okay, Roza?"  
"Yeah, I, uh, I just forgot that I was supposed to go and see Liss."  
He nodded and stood up. "I'll get my coat."  
"That's okay. You stay and, uh, I'll be back soon. It's girl stuff." I said, knowing that I didn't sound very convincing. I was usually an excellent liar, but something about the note had completely thrown me. "I won't be long."  
"I'll be here." He said and kissed me quickly.  
I left our apartment and went down the corridor and knocked on Lissa's door. I was surprised that she hadn't decided to live in the Queen's Quarters but she said that she didn't want to change. I suppose she thought that living with all the luxuries of the previous queen would somehow change her. I thought it was a load of rubbish and would have gladly moved in there with her, but she'd said no. I thought that part of it had something to do with Adrian; Tatiana was his favourite aunt and it had hit him really hard when she'd been killed. Another part of it must have been Christian. It had been his aunt, Tasha Ozera, that had killed Tatiana, tried to frame me and have me executed so that she could control Liss and get Dimitri all to herself. How would it look to everyone else if he were living in Tatiana's house? So, she'd decided to stay in the normal housing, though our floor had been cleared of everyone except the guardians that watched over the two of them.  
I knocked on the door and Christian answered.  
"This better be good." He grumbled. "We were about to go to bed."  
"I don't even want to know." I said with a exaggerated shudder. "I need to show you something."  
"Come on in." He said and hugged me as went past him. "It's really good to see you, Rose."  
"You too, sparky."  
We went in to the living room where Lissa was laid out on the sofa. She looked up to me and smiled, jumped up and hugged me. "Is your house arrest over?"  
"Temporarily. I actually needed to show you guys something." I took the envelope out of my back pocket and handed it to Liss. She read the note and then handed it to Christian.  
"Rosie, Rosie, give me your answer do." He read the words aloud.  
"Did you leave this for me?"  
"No, why would I?"  
"You're the only one that has ever called me Rosie."  
"True." He said with a smirk. "But why would I take the time to cut out letters from a magazine when I could just call you Rosie to your face?"  
I frowned, knowing that he was right. It wouldn't Christian, it wasn't he style. "Well if it wasn't you then who was it?"  
"One of your adoring fans?"  
"I don't have adoring fans."  
"I hate to break it to you, but you totally do. You're the talk of Court. 'Rose Hathaway is so wonderful', 'Rose Hathaway is so badass'. I'm no longer Christian Ozera, amazing boyfriend of the Queen, I'm now Christian Ozera, friend of Rose Hathaway."  
"Uhuh." I looked to Lissa who was frowning, a slight 'v' on her perfect face. "What's wrong?"  
"I don't know, it just sounds so familiar. Read it to me again."  
"Rosie, Rosie, give me your answer do." I said.  
"Why does it sound so familiar?" She asked, more to herself than to either of us. "I know it from somewhere, I know I do."  
"Hey, don't worry." Christian said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek softly. "Rose is fine, it's probably just someone trying to prank her."  
When Christian shot me a meaningful look, I agreed with him. "As much as I hate to admit it, Liss, he's probably right. Don't worry, okay?"  
Lissa nodded but her eyes were so sad. I looked to Christian but he was watching her carefully. "Why don't you go on to bed, Liss? I'll be there in a minute."  
"But Rose-"  
"Rose is going to her own bed." I said with a smile that I didn't really feel. "Go on, you'll feel better in the morning."  
Lissa nodded and said goodnight to us, hugging me and giving Christian a quick kiss before she retreated in to her own room.  
"Is she okay?" I asked as soon as the door closed behind her.  
"Not really. Ever since you guys lost the bond, she's been having a hard time with the madness. She thinks that turning in to a female version of Adrian will make it all better. I'm having to hide everything from her and keep the two of them apart."  
"Why didn't she tell me? Why didn't you tell me?"  
"Because we knew that you'd feel guilty."  
"Why?"  
"Because you're the one that broke the bond."  
"It was either that or die." I snapped.  
He held his hands up defensively. "Hey, I'm just saying it how it is. You broke the bond and now instead of the darkness seeping in to you, it's not going anywhere. She needs a release but I can't find one that won't hurt her in other ways."  
"Will she go back on ani-depressants?"  
"No. She says that she needs spirit to be a good queen and flatly refuses to take anyhthing whenever I bring it up."  
"I'll come by tomorrow and see if I can talk to her."  
"Thanks, Rose."I nodded and hugged him tightly.  
"It's not your fault." He said, saying the words that I desperately needed to hear. It was amazing that he seemed to know me just as well as Dimitri and Liss did, but I supposed it was because, in quite a few ways, we were so similar.  
"Thanks, Christian."


	2. Chapter 2

When I returned home, Dimitri and I finished the movie and then went to bed. I felt as if I'd just closed my eyes and then I was pulled in to a spirit dream. We were in Adrian's apartment and he was leaning against the wall, as far away as he could possibly get.  
"It's 'Daisy'." He said, not wasting any time on small talk.  
"My name's Rose actually, but close enough."  
Adrian rolled his eyes and shook his head. "The note that you got, the line is from the song 'Daisy'."  
"How do you know about the note?"  
"I just checked in on Lissa and she told me. She was spiralling in to the darkness, racking her brain for an answer to your problem. I said that I'd come and tell you."  
"Which song is it?"  
"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy over the love of you-" He said instead of singing it.  
"And I can't afford a carriage..." I sang, filling in the words. "But you'll look sweet, upon the seat of a bicycle made for two."  
"You know it?"  
I nodded and frowned. "Janine used sing it to me when I was little. She changed it to 'Rosie'."  
"I met a show girl in Vegas that was called Daisy. She used to sing it to herself went she put her make up on. Is that why you hate being called 'Rosie'?"  
I nodded and thought about those early days with my mother before she dropped me off at the Academy and went back to being a guardian. Ever since she left me there, I'd never let anyone call me Rosie. I was surprised that I could remember those early days, but I could. I remembered sitting on a chair, Janine behind me as she brushed my hair and sang to me. Her voice was surprisingly sweet for such a tough woman. "Why would someone be sending me a note with a song the lyrics of a song that my mother used to sing to me?"  
"Are you sure it's not your mother?"  
"I doubt it. She's more of a two word email kind of woman. She's too busy saving the world to sit and cut out bits of magazines."  
"I'm sure it's just someone messing with you. Trying to test the amazing Rose Hathaway." He said, the sarcasm thick in his voice.  
"Adrian, I-"  
"I didn't come here to talk to you, little dhampir. I came to tell you what I know. I'll see you around." He said and I could feel the dream fading away.  
"Adrian, wait!" I tried but he was gone.  
I woke up as soon as the dream ended and stared up the ceiling, wondering what the hell was going on. Dimitri was cuddled in to my side, his arm across my hip, hugging me to him. I slowly slipped out of his arms, being careful not to wake him. Dimitri had spent the last week treating me like a baby bird. He touched me with the gentlest hands and watched me carefully. It was sweet how concerned he was for me, or at least it had been for the first hour or so. It quickly became annoying but I'd done my best to bite my tongue and put up with it. Right now, the last thing I needed was him to watch me or ask how I was feeling – he could read me like one of his Western novels and I hated it.  
I went over to the window and pulled the curtain. It was dusk, the sun was just starting to set on the horizon and the sky was filled with an orange-pink glow. I pulled my clothes on quickly and grabbed my stake, slipping it inside my jacket. I scribbled out a note for Dimitri, telling him that I'd gone for a walk and would bring back breakfast, and then left our apartment. I headed straight to the edge of court, spoke briefly to the guardian on gate duty and slipped outside of the wards without too many questions.  
I headed towards the treeline that lead to a heavily wooded area and sat under one of the old oaks and watched the sun set completely. It was peaceful out there with only the sounds of the birds chirping to each other. There was no other noise – no cars or people, no hustle and bustle that came from living in the cities. I'd missed at first, when Dimitri had taken Liss and I back to St Vlad's but now I loved the silence.  
I wasn't sure how long I'd been sitting there but it was completely dark and I knew that Dimitri would probably be awake by now, so I stood up and brushed the dirt of my butt before heading back to the gate. It was then that a wave of nausea washed over me and I froze. Since I'd lost the bond, I'd been sure that I'd have lost everything else too; the nausea that told me when strigoi were near, the darkness and the ghosts. Apparently, I hadn't.  
I pulled my stake out of my jacket and turned to face the trees. A strigoi woman came out from behind one of the trees, her skin pale and her eyes red. Her clothes were torn and her hair was a mess but she still looked like she'd be a credible opponent. Especially seeing as I was out of practice. She bared her fangs at me snarled, taking a step towards me. I took an automatic step back and altered my stance, ready to defend myself. The irony wasn't lost on me – six weeks ago it would have been me that was ready to attack but now I was taking a purely defensive stance.  
She raced towards me and swung out at me. For the most part, I evaded her attacks and did my best to stay upright.  
She closed the distance between us and lashed out. I ducked her blow, the fist that had been meant for my jaw narrowly missing me. Avoiding her was relatively simple but I knew that it wouldn't last. I was getting tired quickly and I knew that I needed to attack. I tightened my grip on my stake and swiped at her, my stake slicing her chest open. She squealed in pain as the silver slit her skin open but we both knew that it was barely more than a paper cut. The slice had only angered her further and she came to me with more force than before. She managed to knock me down but I rolled before she could rip my heart out with her bare hands. I was on my back, looking up at her, when she lunged down at me. It wasn't until I smiled up her that she even realised that my stake had gone straight through her heart. She looked at me in disbelief for a moment before she closed her eyes and slumped over me.  
I struggled to push her off me but I managed it and pulled my stake out of her chest. I laid still for a moment, staring up at the night sky as I caught my breath. I stood up and put my stake back in my jacket, wondering what I was going to tell Dimitri. Nothing, I decided. I wasn't going to tell him anything. As far as he was concerned, I'd had an uneventful, peaceful walk. What happened outside the wards, stayed outside the wards. Dimitri would never need to know. Or maybe not.  
Three more strigoi came out from the treeline then, there grins visible even in the dark. They came towards me as I pulled my stake out again, wondering how the hell I was going to get through this, and formed a triangle around me with me in the centre.  
They pushed me around, much like I'd seen the kids at school do. I was shoved from one strigoi to another, barely staying on my feet, before they got bored of there game. The one that held me spun me around so that my back was against his chest, his hands around my throat.  
"How nice, I get first taste." He laughed to his friends and then tilted my head to the side, brushing his cold lips against my skin.  
"You said that we'd all get first taste. There's plenty of her to go around, Eric." One complained but was silenced by Eric's growl.  
I used his distraction to throw my head back hard, hitting his nose. It didn't hurt him but it surprised him enough for me to get out of his grip. I knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to fight all three of them and live to tell the tale, so I ran as fast I could towards the gate. I knew that they were only a few paces behind me but I didn't turn to see. I kept running, forcing myself to keep going even though my chest was burning.  
I screamed to guardian on duty and he radioed for back up as I turned to face the strigoi. They snarled at me, the fun and games obviously over. Eric stood in front of the other two and advanced towards me. He attacked with a speed that shocked me. Strigoi were fast but Eric was something else. His moves were a blur, every strike hitting it's mark. I screamed in pain as his claw-like nails tore through the top of my right arm and my stake fell to the floor. He struck out again, his claws barely missing my neck as another guardian staked him from behind. Three guardians had come through the gate and descended on the other the strigoi as the guardian that had been on the gate came to me. He picked my stake up and put his other arm around my waist, practically dragging me inside.  
He closed the gate behind us and turned to me, a look of a disappointment in his eyes. I recognised him but couldn't remember his name and yet his disappoinment still stung. I had a reputation for being the best guardian around, not just for my age or because I was one of the few females but because I was genuinely one of the best. I'd been a force to be reckoned with before Tasha had shot me and Dimitri had kept me on bed rest for six weeks. I clamped my hand over my shredded arm in an attempt to slow the bleeding and sighed.  
"I'll call Belikov." He said quietly.  
"No, you won't." I held my bloody hand out and demanded that he give me my stake.  
He put my stake in my hand and frowned. "I should really cal Guardian B-"  
"Guardian Belikov is not my guardian, he's Lord Ozera's. As Lord Ozera was not here, Guardian Belikov doesn't need to know."  
"Yes, Guardian Hathaway." He said, though we both know that he was going to call. I walked away from him, muttering to myself about nosey guardians and went home.

I went in to the apartment and saw Dimitri in the kitchen. He was on the phone as I'd expected. I'd known that the Guardian was going to call him but I'd hoped for a head start. I headed straight in to the bathroom, locking the door behind me, and peeled my jacket off. The sleeve was shredded and I sighed, knowing that I'd have to buy a new one. I pulled my T shirt off and looked at my arm in the mirror, standing in my bra and jeans. I turned the tap on and threw a new wash cloth in to the sink, waiting for the water to warm up.  
"Roza?" He banged on the door and shouted my name, the worry clear in his voice. "Roza?"  
"I'm fine, Dimitri. Just give me a minute."  
"Are you hurt?"  
"I'm fine."  
"Roza, open the door."  
"Dimitri, please-"  
"Open the door or I'll break it down."  
Normally a show of his god-like strength would have turned me on but in that moment it irritated me. I pulled my bathrobe on, wincing as it resting on my torn skin, and opened the door. "What's so important?"  
He looked me over before staring in to my eyes. "Where is it?"  
"Where's what?"  
"Your injury."  
"I told you, I'm fine."  
"Then why is there a trail of blood on the floor?" I looked down and saw drops of blood leading from the front door to the bathroom. "Show it to me."  
"I'm taking care of it."  
"Damn it, Rose! Show me."  
I shrugged out of the bathrobe and stood before him in just my bra, which would have usually gained me a look of lust, but he was too busy looking at my shredded arm.  
"What happened?"  
"Strigoi." I said simply.  
"Oh, Roza. What were you doing outside of the wards?"  
"I was just, uh, I just needed some space."  
"From?"  
"Everything." I said with a sigh. "You won't let me train, Lissa's always busy, Adrian's still avoiding me. Eddie has his work and I have nothing."  
"You have me." Dimitri said quietly. I could see in his eyes that I'd upset him and I started to feel guilty.  
"I know. I didn't mean... I just meant that I don't feel like me. Everything that I worked so hard for is gone."  
"You'll get it back, Roza." He pressed his lips to my forehead and took me back in to the bathroom. "Let's get this clean, shall we?"  
I nodded and watched as he turned the shower on. He knelt down in front of me and unlaced my boots, slipping them off one by one. My socks followed them and then he unbuttoned my jeans and slid them down my legs. He hooked his fingers in the side of my pants and they followed my jeans. I stepped out them dutifully and watched him as he stood up. His arms went behind my back as he undid the hooks on my bra and pulled it out of my arms, his eyes fixed firmly on my face.  
"Dimitri-"  
"In you go." He said and helped me in to the shower cubicle.  
I stood under the water and watched as he took his shirt and jeans before he stepped in to the shower, still in his black boxer briefs. They did little to hide his lust for me, but they sent a clear message – this was not that kind of shower. Instead, Dimitri positioned me so that my injured arm was directly under the warm water. He murmured Russian words in my ear soothingly when I winced. The water was causing a pleasure-pain reaction in me; it felt amazing on my sore muscles but made my arm sting as it washed away the blood and dirt. I leaned my head against his chest and he wrapped his arms around me in return, resting his cheek on the top of my head.  
"What were you doing out there, Roza?"  
"Looking for answers." I said quietly.  
"Answers to what?"  
"Everything. I wanted to be a guardian so badly. I had a plan, my life was going to go a certain way and everything would work out perfectly. Now look at me."  
"Roza-"  
"Look at me, Dimitri. I'm a mess."  
"No, my Roza. You're perfect. We're going to start your training tomorrow."  
"We?"  
"We." He said and gave me a reassuring squeeze. "We both know that you'll push yourself too much if I'm not there."  
I didn't argue with him because he was right. We both knew that I'd go too fast and probably do myself some damage in the process. "Thank you, comrade."  
"You have to be sensible about this. And no more going outside of the wards. You're too important to me for me to lose you."  
I nodded against his chest and smiled.  
"We'll go to Vasilisa when you're clean."  
I pulled away from him so quickly that he hadn't been expecting it. "Why?"  
"So that she can heal you."  
"No. Absolutely not. She's not coming anywhere near me and you aren't going to tell her."  
"Roza-"  
"No, Dimitri. She's... She's not doing so great without the bond. The darkness is building up inside and she's... We're not going."  
"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, his eyes angry.  
"I don't have to tell you everything, comrade."  
"You do when it concerns the well being of the Queen." He snapped and got out of the shower, grabbing a towel and leaving the bathroom.  
I washed my hair, making sure that the shampoo didn't run down my injured arm and then turn the water off. I wrapped a towel around me, an awkward task with only one working arm and went in to the bedroom. Dimitri wasn't in there, so I dried myself off and got dressed quickly before going to find him.


	3. Chapter 3

Dimitri was on his hands and knees on the floor, a bowl of soapy water next to him as he scrubbed my blood off the floor. He looked up at me briefly and then back down to the floor.  
"There is antiseptic and a bandage on the counter." He said as he scrubbed.  
"Thanks." I said and watched him for a moment. "You don't have to do that, Dimitri."  
He didn't answer me, he just continued scrubbing the floor, rinsing the cloth and then went back to scrubbing. I went in to the kitchen and found the bottle of antiseptic that he'd left out for me with a small pile of cotton wool balls next to it. I took the top off the bottle and put some on a ball and dabbed it against me arm. I hissed in a breath and winced, the stinging sensation making my eyes water.  
Someone knocked at the door as I was cleaning my arm but I didn't go to open it. I saw Dimitri stand up out of the corner of my eye and go to answer the door. He was speaking in hushed tones to whoever was there so I turned away and focused on my arm.  
"You really need to learn to stay out of trouble, little dhampir." Adrian's voice was tense as he stood behind me.  
"You know me, Adrian. Trouble finds me even when I try to be good."  
He grunted and put his hand on my shoulder, turning me around to face him. He looked at my arm and grimaced. "That doesn't look so good."  
"It doesn't feel so good either." It was the understatement of the year but I didn't want him to know how much pain I was in. "Not that I'm not pleased to see you, but why are you here?"  
"I was summoned." He said, his eyes flicking over to Dimitri.  
I looked to Dimitri and frowned. "You called him?"  
"Someone has to look after you, Roza. You won't let me do it and you wouldn't let me take you to Vasilisa." He said, never looking up from the floor.  
"So, I'm the next best thing." He said and held his hands up towards my arm.  
I took a step back so that he couldn't touch me. "I don't want you to heal me, Adrian."  
He didn't look offended, he just rolled his eyes. "For God's sake, Rose. It's already infected, look at it."  
I looked down and knew that he was probably right. There were four deep gashes on the top of my arm where Eric's fingers had gone through the skin like a knife through butter. The skin was already an angry red colour and it felt hot. "It'll be fine."  
"Just because you healed yourself when you got shot, doesn't mean that you have to be so stubborn."  
"I'm not being stubborn." I snapped. "If I won't let Liss use spirit on me because of the darkness, why would you think that I'd let you."  
"Lissa and I are hardly the same."  
"Why? Because you drink the madness away?"  
"Because it's me and Liss." He said with a hint of pain in his voice. "You care about her."  
"I care about you, too."  
He turned away from me with a snort and headed towards the door. He turned his head slightly, looking at Dimitri over his shoulder. "When she stops being so stubborn, call me. Otherwise, make sure she sees a doctor."  
Dimitri nodded and thanked him for coming before standing up and picking up the bowl of now pink water. The door slammed behind Adrian, making me flinch as Dimitri poured the water down the sink. He threw the cloth in to the washing machine and turned to face me. He didn't say anything, he just looked at me. After a moment he went in to the living and came back with a white envelope.  
"This was slid under the door." He said, as he slid it on to the counter in front of me.  
My heart picked up as I stared down at my name, neatly written on the front. I ignored it, not wanting to open it in front of him. If he noticed, he didn't say anything. "Why did you call Adrian?"  
"I told you, you won't let anyone else look after you."  
"What makes you think that I'd let Adrian?" I asked. "And I don't need anyone to look after me."  
"No? Then why did four guardians have to save you from getting your throat ripped out?" He asked, his voice cracking at the thought of it. "Did you think that they wouldn't tell me?"  
"They shouldn't have told you!" I snapped. "I'm not your charge."  
"No, you're not. You're the woman that I love, though you're acting more like a child, Roza. What were you thinking?"  
"I don't know."  
He shook his head and glared at me. "You're appointment is in an hour."  
I'd completely forgotten about the appointment that Dimitri had arranged for me yesterday but I knew that if I refused to go, he'd be furious. "Fine. They can look at my arm while I'm there."  
I stood up and took the envelope with me, retreating in to our bedroom so that I could get ready to go. My hair was still quite damp, so I towelled it off again and turned the hair dryer on, tipping my head upside down. When it was done, I brushed mascara over my lashes and put a slightly tinted lip balm on.  
I sat on the edge of the bed and opened the envelope that Dimitri had given me, wondering who would have slid it under the door. It was another magazine note, though this time it said 'I'm half crazy over the thought of killing you'. The last note may not have been particularly threatening, but this one certainly was. I folded it back up and put it with the other one, hiding them in my underwear drawer.

* * *

"How are you feeling, Rose?" Dr Nikolaev asked once we'd sat down.  
"Fine." I said, keeping my eyes on him and not looking at Dimitri. He had white hair and a mole on his left cheek that had little whiskers poking out of it. He had kind eyes that made me feel better, peaceful even.  
He turned to Dimitri with a knowing look. "How has she been feeling?"  
"She's insisting that she's healed and that she's ready to go back to her training. Also, she had an altercation with three strigoi this morning and her arm is in bad shape."  
"Let's take a look then, shall we?" He said and put his glasses on, balancing them on the end of his nose.  
I slipped my jacket off, glad that I'd only got a vest top on and offered my arm for his inspection. He pulled on a pair of latex gloves and poked the area gently, though it still hurt.  
"Are you sure that this happened last night?"  
"Pretty sure." I said between clenched teeth as he spread the cuts open and looked inside. "Why?"  
"The amount of infection that you have in this wound would be unlikely considering that it only happened a few hours ago. It scratched you, the strigoi?"  
"Yes." I said, though it was hardly a scratch.  
"Interesting." He said, snapping off his gloves and turning to write something on a pad. "Are you feeling well otherwise? No headaches, nausea or fever?"  
"No."  
"What does this mean, Dr Nikolaev?"  
"I'm not sure." He said as he took his glasses off and stared absently at my arm. "I'll have to do some research on strigoi scratches. I don't see too many of them, especially not this deep. It goes down almost to the bone. We'll stitch it up and give you a course of antibiotics to tackle the infection."  
"Thanks."  
"That will mean no training, not until your stitches have been removed."  
"How long will that be?"  
"At least seven days, perhaps more. It depends on the rate of healing at the time."  
Inside I was screaming every dirty word that I could think of but on the outside I smiled and sat quietly as he injected me with an anaesthetic and sewed up my arm. I thanked him for seeing me and then I stormed out of the doctors office and stood on the pavement, fuming. Dimitri came out and stood beside me, though he didn't put his arm around me like he usually did. He was angry but hell, so was I.  
"That's great. That's just perfect!" I shouted at no one in particular.  
"Calm down, Roza. It's just another week."  
"Another week of being stuck in the house and watched by you." I snapped.  
"Would you rather that I wasn't there? So that you could sneak out to the gym or go outside of Court again?"  
"I-"  
"You need to think of your health. If you won't do it for me then at least do it for Vasilisa. You need to be ready to train. Rushing back in to it will only do you more damage, possibly permanent damage. You will never be her guardian again and then where will that leave you?"  
"What? No Zen lesson?" I snapped, knowing that he was right and hating it.  
"No, Roza, no Zen lesson. You never listen to those any way."  
I scowled at him, biting my tongue and holding all the bitchy things that I wanted to say to him. I knew that it wasn't his fault but the words were itching to come out of my mouth. I wanted to scream that it was his fault, that the whole reason I was in this mess was because of Tasha's obsession with him and that he was driving me crazy with all of the watching and the lecturing. That I didn't need him to be my babysitter. That he could go back to work and stop hanging around the house as if I were some sort of flight risk. It felt like it did when he and Sydney took me to that God awful motel and watched me, making sure that I didn't leave. I didn't though. I bit my tongue and scowled at him like a four-year-old that wasn't getting her own way.  
"Let's just go home, shall we?" He asked and starting walking before I even answered him.  
I followed behind him like a sulky child. I'd tried to fold my arms over my chest but I was in too much pain, even with the anaesthetic. Angry tears filled my eyes and I swiped them away quickly before Dimitri saw them.

When we got home, I went straight in to the bedroom, closing the door behind me and shutting Dimitri out. I closed the curtains, even though it was dark outside, and crawled in to bed with my clothes still on. I curled up in to the smallest ball that I could and cried myself to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

It was mid-afternoon when I woke up and I knew before I'd even gotten out of bed that my eyes were puffy and probably blotchy. It was still dark outside and the alarm clock on Dimitri's side of the bed said that it was 3.15am. There were only two hours until sunrise and then I'd be back in bed but I was starving. I picked up my cell phone and called Franklin's, the pizza place and ordered the biggest Mighty Meaty, with everything that they had. Frankie, Franklin's son, said that it'd be with my in half an hour, so I got up and went to find Dimitri.  
He wasn't in the living room or the kitchen, but I did find a note on the worktop that had been left for me.  
 _Roza,  
_ _I've gone to the gym.  
_ _I'll bring dinner home.  
_ _Dimitri  
_ _  
_It was the same way he always signed his notes. There were no declarations of love, that wasn't his style, but even his note sounded angry. I sighed and went in to the living room, turning the TV on and wrapping a blanket around my shoulders.  
Twenty minutes later, the was a knock on the door and I got up to answer it, the blanket still wrapped around my shoulders. It was Dave, the delivery boy from Franklin's.  
"Hey, Rose. How's it going?"  
"Good. You?"  
"I'll be better when I finish. We've been busy tonight. This was taped to your door." He handed me an envelope and the pizza.  
"Thanks, Dave." I handed him a twenty, telling him to keep the change. He thanked me and then strolled off down the corridor.  
It was another white envelope, my third in twenty-four hours. I took it and the pizza in to the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast bar. I opened the pizza box and ate a slice before I opened the envelope and read it.  
'I can't afford the damage, but you'll look sweet laid out in a coffin made just for you'. This one didn't rhyme like the original song had but it certainly served its purpose. A shiver ran down my spine as I pictured myself, dressed in my guardian uniform with Dimitri and Lissa staring down at me in a coffin. I hated to admit it, but whoever was sending me these notes were starting to worry me. It was absurd, I didn't scare easily but I was scared. My appetite was suddenly gone and I couldn't stand being in the apartment alone, so I went over to Liss and Christian's with the pizza.

I knocked on the door and Christian opened it, smiling when he saw the pizza.  
"You are a Goddess, Rose Hathaway."  
"Tell me something I don't know." I said as I handed the pizza box to him. "I only had one slice."  
"We were just talking about what to have for dinner." He said as we went inside.  
Liss was sitting on the sofa with a glass of water as she read a menu with a frown. "Hey, Rose."  
"Hey. How're you feeling?"  
"I'm fine. Did you get any more of those notes?" She asked.  
"No. Christian was right, it was just someone messing with me." I lied. Lissa smiled and carried on with what she was doing but Christian frowned at me.  
"Rose brought pizza."  
"Oh my God, I love you." Liss said. "I'll get plates."  
Christian waited until she went in to the kitchen before he turned to me. "You got more didn't you? What did they say?" He asked.  
"Nothing."  
"It must have been something, Rose. You never lie to Liss."  
"I do when I have to."  
"So, tell me. I won't go in to a spirit induced craze, it's safe to tell me."  
Lissa came back with plates then. She set them down on the coffee table and was about to sit down when Christian asked her to fetch him a drink. She asked if I wanted one and then went back in to the kitchen. I pulled the folded pieces of paper out of my pocket and handed them to him. He read them over, his brows furrowed and his teeth clenched. "What did Dimitri say about this."  
"He agrees with you. It's just a prank." I said.  
"Which translates to 'nothing, Christian, because I didn't tell him'?"  
"And neither will you. He's had enough to worry about and I'm not going to add this to his list."  
"You should stop being so stubborn. He loves you, he's allowed to worry. Especially after what happened." He waved his hand around his chest area. Ever since it had happened, he hadn't been able to say Tasha's name or that she'd shot me, at least not out loud. He hadn't gone to her trial or her sentencing, or her execution.  
"Why does everyone keep telling me that I'm stubborn?"  
"Because you are. I get it, Rose – you're an independent woman and everything but it wouldn't kill you to think about how all of this affected him, would it?"  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
"You didn't see him when you were shot. I know you were unconscious and fighting for your life and everything but he was broken, Rose. He was terrified. He'd just gotten you back after the whole being an evil, undead creature and then you were with Adrian and then you were on the run... He though that he'd lost you."  
"He didn't."  
"He didn't know that. I've never seen that side of him. He's always so professional and guardian-like. Nearly losing you really took it out of him. If you keep this from him, I don't know what he'll do."  
"And telling him will worry him for no reason. He and Liss are better off not knowing about it."  
"Rose-"  
"Right?"  
"Liss might be better off but Dimitri won't be and you know. You have to tell him."  
"Tell who what?" Liss asked as she came in with a cup of tea and two cans of pop.  
"Adrian." Christian said quickly. "Rose was just saying that he won't talk to her."  
"I thought he was going to tell you about the song?" She asked as she passed the plates around.  
"He did. He came to me in a dream but as soon as I tried to talk to him, he left."  
"He just needs some time, Rose. He's hurting."  
"I know." I said with a sigh, sending silent thanks to Christian.  
He must have known because he nodded. We chatted away about various things, though I made sure not to say anything about Eric and his friends or my shredded arm. I kept my hoodie on and we ate our way through the pizza.  
Christian decided that he was still hungry, so he ordered another one. We sat waiting for it and Liss was telling me about an argument between two Morois that she'd had to sort out but the conversation quickly turned in a direction that I wasn't comfortable with.  
"So, any idea on when you're going to be able to start training again?" Liss asked. "Lehigh are asking for my start date and I keep putting them off but they won't keep my place open forever and-"  
"It's going to be a couple of weeks, Liss. I'm sorry."  
"Oh." She said quietly, trying and failing to hide her disappointment. "That's okay."  
"You could take Dimitri with you, if Christian doesn't mind swapping." I said.  
"I can't. I can't take someone else's guardian."  
"You can if you switch us. Temporarily, of course." Christian looked to me with surprise and I winked at him. "You can't put college off because I'm still not well enough to train, and you do need a guardian that can actually guard you. You can have Dimitri, Christian can have me and we'll switch again over the Christmas break."  
"You're volunteering to spend time with Christian?" She asked, her open mouth practically hitting the floor.  
I may have had a small problem with Christian in the past but it was long gone. I loved him like a brother and whilst I'd send him away as well if I could, I knew that it would be impossible. Some time away from Court would probably do her the world of good, but I wasn't about to tell her that. "Sure, if it gets you to where you want to be."  
Dimitri hadn't been the only one that had put his life on hold for me when I'd been shot. Lissa was supposed to go to Lehigh but she'd put it off after her coronation, saying that she needed to be near me in case I needed healing. I'd never let her heal me, but she'd still refused to leave without me.  
I'd realised a while ago that it wasn't just my life that Tasha Ozera had practically ruined. My chances of being Lissa's guardian were rapidly falling every day that I wasn't training, Dimitri was putting his life on hold and so was Liss. It was nice in a way, it meant that they believed in me, in the fact that I'd get back to where I needed to be, but I wasn't so sure. If I couldn't protect myself, how was I going to protect her?  
There was a knock on their door and Christian stood up. "If I'd have known that being the Queen's boyfriend would have gotten me instant delivery, I'd have made you Queen at St Vlad's."  
Liss and I chuckled and carried on talking about Lehigh for a moment before Christian came back. "Rose, you've got a visitor." He said, an unreadable look on his face.  
I looked over to the door and saw Dimitri standing there, his hands behind his back in his usual guardian stance. I stood up, the room swaying slightly as I did, and went over to him, giving him a tight smile. "Is everything okay?"  
"You weren't at home."  
"No, I've been here."  
"You left your phone at home."  
"I must have forgotten to pick it up."  
"Why have one if you forget to take it with you." He asked, his voice shaking. He was angry, though I couldn't work out why.  
"I'm sorry." I said quietly. "I didn't know that you'd be looking for me."  
"You weren't at home when I got back. Of course I'd come looking for you, especially after last night."  
"Not here, Dimitri. Please." I said, hoping that he'd listen to me. Of course, he didn't.  
"You haven't told them?" He said loudly, knowing that they'd be able to hear him. The son of a bitch was backing me in to a corner that I wouldn't be able to talk myself out of, and he knew it. He was forcing my hand, making sure that I'd have to tell them the truth.  
I turned just as Christian and Lissa's heads shot up. "Told us what?" Liss asked.  
"Nothing, Liss. Don't worry." I spun back to Dimitri and glared at him. "Do not do this." I hissed but he looked past me to Liss and nodded his head respectfully.  
"Vasilisa-"  
"Dimitri, please. How many times do I have to ask you to call me Lissa."  
"Respectfully, I don't feel comfortable doing that. I'm afraid that I have to report an incident that happened just after dark."  
"Dimitri, please-"  
He continued as if I hadn't spoken. "Just after the sun set, Guardian Hathaway was attacked by four strigoi. She managed to fight and kill one of them, but had considerable difficulty with the remaining three. One of them injured her arm, which has been damaged quite severely. The guardian on gate duty had to leave his post to bring her inside the wards, whilst another three guardian's took care of the strigoi."  
Liss and Christian both turned to me, her face full of betrayal and his full of sadness. They didn't say anything but honestly, they didn't need to. Even without the bond, I knew what she was thinking – how could you do that, Rose? Why wouldn't you tell me, Rose? I was about to apologise to them and explain when Christian pulled something out of his pocket. My heart stopped when I watched him hand them over to Dimitri.  
"Whilst we're all being honest, Rose has been getting these. We think that they're threats, though it could just be someone messing around with her. Adrian-"  
"Adrian knew about this?"  
Christian ignored him as if he hadn't even spoken. "Adrian and Liss recognised the song but obviously the words have been changed. It's from 'Daisy'."  
Dimitri nodded and read the letters, folded them up neatly and handed them back to Christian. He made sure that Liss was okay and then left, without a single word to me.  
I turned on Christian then, my teeth bared. "How could you?"  
"How could _you_? You come over here with pizza and death threats and don't tell us that you were attacked? You could have died, Rose."  
"I was fine." I lied.  
"Show me your arm." Lissa said quietly. It was the first time that she'd spoken since Dimitri and Christian's confessions.  
"Liss, really, it's fine. It's healing on its own and it doesn't even hurt that much any more."  
"Show me." She repeated with every ounce of queenly authority that she could summon. When she used her Queen voice, there was no refusing her.  
I unzipped my hoodie and gently took it off. Liss gasped when she saw the once white bandage. It was more a dark red now where the blood was still oozing out of the slashes. I took the bandage off slowly and as the dried blood came away with the bandage my arm started to bleed again.  
"Did you go to a doctor?" Christian asked.  
I nodded. "He was going to stitch it up and give me some antibiotics but I left in a rush."  
Liss stood up and came over to me, her eyes full of concern as she looked at my arm. The flesh around the gashes was an angry red colour and bleeding and it was  
starting to ooze slightly.  
"You're sure that this doesn't hurt?" Liss asked, her brows furrowed.  
"I'm sure. See?" I said and flicked myself. "All better."  
"Rose, that doesn't mean that it's fine." She turned to Christian, her eyes wide. "Go and fetch Dimitri."  
He didn't ask any questions, he just nodded and left us alone.


	5. Chapter 5

Dimitri POV

I'd only been in the apartment for a few minutes before Christian came rushing in with such speed that the frint door banged against the wall.  
"You need to come back, Dimitri." He said.  
"I don't think that would be wise."  
"Rose can't feel her arm. I mean, she can but not around the wound. She can't feel any pain. She flicked it, right in one of the slashes and she didn't feel anything. She didn't even notice that Liss had jabbed her with a fork. She can't feel it." He said.  
"Vasilisa stabbed her with a fork?"  
"Yes. Well, no. She poked her with a fork but Rose didn't see her and she didn't feel it. There's something really wrong." The worry was clear in his eyes.  
I nodded and followed him back to their apartment. Roza and Vasilisa were sitting on the sofa, arguing about something. Roza looked up to me, though she didn't smile.  
"Tell her. Tell her that she can't heal me." She demanded.  
"Roza-"  
"Damn it, Dimitri. You know that she can't. You know what's happening to her. It's not safe." She said.  
"Until we know exactly what is happening with Roza, I'm going to have to agree with her."  
"But-"  
"Roza, perhaps you should go and take a shower. You have to keep the wound clean."  
"You can shower here, Rose." Christian said and watched as she frowned and stormed out of the living room.  
We sat in silence until we heard that the shower had been turned on.  
"She's been poisoned, Dimitri." Vasilisa said, her eyes wide and her hands trembling.  
"Why would strigoi poison her?" Christian asked. "Why not just kill her? Or kidnap her. Or turn her."  
"Christian!"  
"I'm not saying that they should have." He said as if that should have been obvious. "Poison is hardly their style though. And why go to all that trouble? I mean, they must have known that they'd be killed but why sacrifice themselves like that?"  
"Kamikaze." I muttered more to myself than anyone else.  
"Kama-who?" Christian asked.  
"Kamikaze. In World War Two they were the Japanese version of suicide bombers. They flew their planes in to the ships of their enemy."  
"So the strigoi were Japanese?"  
"No, they were on a suicide mission. They knew that they'd be killed but they needed to get the poison to Roza. What we need to know is what kind of poison it is."  
"How would they know that she was even out there?" Christian asked. It was a good question, even I didn't know that she was going to be out there.  
"They must have been watching her ever since she came to Court." Vasilisa said quietly. "She goes out there all the time. When she needs to think about something or make a plan or just needs some space."  
"She's been on bed rest for six weeks." I said, wondering how she would have gotten out there and why none of the guardians would have mentioned it.  
"You haven't been with her all the time, Dimitri." Vasilisa said, her angelic face flushing slightly.  
"You've taken her out of the wards? Liss how could you? You're the Queen."  
"We always took guardians, Christian, I'm not stupid."  
"Well, apparently Rose is."  
"Gee, thanks."  
We all turned towards the voice. Roza was stood by the door, wrapped up in two fluffy towels; one around her body and another hiding her hair as it twisted on top of her head. Against the white of the towels, her arm looked even worse. She was holding on to the frame of the door tightly, trying to steady herself.  
"Rose, I didn't mean-"  
"We get it, Rose is stupid." She said as she shakily walked through the living room. "I'm going home."  
"You can't just leave, Rose. We need to talk about-"  
"Liss, there's ten minutes until the sun comes up, I'm tired, I'm dizzy and I'm practically naked. I'm going home. You guys can talk about this for as long as you want."  
I went to her side and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. "Let me help you, Roza."  
"No thank you, Guardian Belikov. I'm more than capable of walking down the hall by myself." She snapped and did her best to shrug my arm off. I let her go and watched as she walked on shaky legs, slamming the door behind her. Roza only called me by my professional name if she was really angry with me, and she certainly was. Why though, I wasn't sure. It was me that should have been angry with her for being so careless with her own safety.  
The three of us stood in silence, staring at the door for a few moments before I turned back to Vasilisa and Christian. "How long has she been getting these threats for?"  
"A couple of days." Christian said quietly. "We didn't know that it was anything serious and she said that she'd told you. She came over today after getting two more. She showed them to me."  
"Were you going to tell me?" Vasilisa asked. The hurt in her voice was obvious.  
"I didn't want to worry you. You've already got so much going on."  
"She's all the family that I have left."  
"You have Jill."  
"It's not the same. We share the same father but she doesn't know me. She hasn't spent her life learning things about me the way that Rose has. She doesn't know everything about me. She didn't go through everything with me. She's nothing to me, Christian. She's the product of an affair that my father had with her mother. That doesn't make her my sister. Not in the way that Andre was my brother."  
"She's still your sister."  
"Then why would I rather it was her that had been poisoned and not Rose?"  
"You don't mean that, Liss."  
"Yes, I do. If I could take it from her and give it to Jill, I would."  
Christian looked up to me, his eyes pleading for help, but I didn't know what to say to either of them. Looking at Vasilisa, I knew that it was the darkness that was making her say these things. She had the same wild look in her eyes that Roza had had when the darkness affected her. I didn't know how to help her. I didn't know how to help my Roza. I didn't know how to help anyone. I stood there like a statue, feeling more lost than I had in years. Vasilisa turned on my then, her finger extended as she pointed at me.  
"Is this why she wanted you to be my guardian? So that we'd leave? So that she could face everything alone?" She asked.  
It took me a moment to follow her line of thought because she'd completely changed the convrsation. It was the darkness I knew, scrambling her thoughts and making her sound slightly crazy. "I-"  
"Did she really think that we'd just leave her?" She demanded. "Or that we'd leave Christian with a guardian that wasn't able to protect him?"  
"I wasn't aware that she'd suggested it."  
"Of course you were. You know her. You know the way that she thinks. You've been with her since you dragged us back to school. You know her, Dimitri."  
She was right, I did know her. I knew the way that Roza's mind worked. I knew what she was thinking when she pulled a face or made the slightest noise. Or at least I thought I did. Standing there, I wasn't so sure that I knew her at all. There was one thing that I was absolutely certain of. "She would do anything to keep you safe, Vasilisa. She's spent her life doing it and she will keep doing it for as long as she can. If she suggested that you and I leave, I can only assume that it would be to keep you safe."  
"And what about her?" Vasilisa screamed. "What about her safety?"  
I didn't get the chance to answer her, not that I really had an answer, because the door burst open and a red faced Simon burst in to the apartment. We turned to look at him but we didn't get a chance to say anything.  
"Forgive the intrusion, Your Majesty, but it's Guardian Hathaway. She collapsed in the hall and she's unresponsive."  
We rushed to the hall and saw Roza, lying in the middle of the floor a few feet away from our front door. Her arm was still bleeding, though it was a slow flow. Someone had draped their jacket over her, presumably to keep her modesty intact. I looked up at the guardians and saw that Milo was standing in just a white shirt. I slipped my duster off and laid it over her, knowing that it would provide her more warmth than the jacket, and handed the jacket back to Milo.  
"We've called for the doctor but he's had an emergency and he doesn't know when he's going to be able to get here." Simon said quietly.  
"Go and fetch him." Vasilisa said.  
"But-"  
"Go and fetch him right now. Tell him that the Queen demands his presence and if he doesn't come-"  
"What's the emergency?" I asked, stopping Vasilisa before she could make any threats.  
"One of the Moroi went in to labour and it's been a complicated birth. He can't leave her or both she and the baby could die."  
"Then he's where he needs to be." I said, brushing Roza's hair out of her face. "She's got a steady heartbeat and she's breathing. She'll be fine for a little longer." I said, more to assure Vasilisa than myself. She did have a steady heartbeat but it was becoming weaker and her breathing was shallow. I scooped her up in my arms, resting her head against my chest, and took her home. Everyone followed; Vasilisa and Christian, and all of the guardians that were on duty. It seemed unprofessional but I knew how much Roza meant to them all. She'd risen to fame with her extraordinary number of strigoi kills and then she'd jumped in front of a bullet to save Vasilisa. She'd made friends with all of Vasilisa's guardians and Christian's too. She was one of those people that you couldn't help but love and in their own ways, they all loved her. It didn't seem to matter anyway. They were there to protect the Queen and Lord Ozera, both of which were inside my apartment.  
I took Roza to the bedroom and laid her down on the bed, removing my duster before I tucked her in. I pressed my lips to her temple and then just sat beside her, wondering how she could be so stubborn.  
From what I could gather, she'd always been the same way; headstrong and unmoving when she thought that she was right. Still, I couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't come to me. Was it because we'd argued after her doctor's appointment or was it because she was trying to protect me too? I knew that she must have been; why else would she have offered Vasilisa to trade guardians. My stubborn Roza was going to be the death of me and probably herself, too.  
I couldn't be sure how long I'd been sitting there beside her, my fingers pressed to her wrist as I monitored her heart rate. The sun was filtering in through the blinds, but it didn't matter to me. I needed to monitor Roza until the doctor came, though God only knew when that would be.  
There was a gentle knock on the bedroom door and Simon came inside quietly. "There's a call for you, Dimitri."  
"Who is it?"  
"It's your mother."  
I took the phone from his hand, waited until he'd left the room and tried to speak to her, but there was a knot in my throat that stopped me. "Dimka? Dimka are you there? Yeva insisted that I call you. Is Roza okay?"  
"No, Mama."  
"What happened?" She asked, her voice cracking. Mama loved Roza as much as I did. She'd welcomed her in to the family when she'd gone to Russia, hunting me down. She'd come to Court when Roza had been shot and she loved her like she loved me.  
"She... She's..." I tried but couldn't bring myself to say the words.  
"Yeva is here." Mama said and then passed the phone over.  
Yeva came on, speaking to me in Russian. "The poison is from an Amphisbaena."  
"I don't-"  
"Listen to me, Dimitri." She snapped. "If that girl dies, the world will change. You don't know how important she is."  
"Yeva-"  
"The Amphisbaena is a creature of legend and myth but they are real. A two headed serpant with wings and deadly poison. When was she infected?"  
"Just after yesterday's sunset."  
"What does the wound look like?"  
I looked closely at her arm, my stomach rolling as I did. The slashes in her arm were jagged and oozing a thick yellow substance. There were green lines under skin that were as thick as my thumb and getting thinner as they carried the poison further in to her body. She was warm to the touch and her skin had a sheen of sweat over it. I relayed the information to Yeva and she sighed.  
"Then you're running out of time. She needs the antidote within the next twelve hours or she'll die."  
I thanked Yeva for calling and hung up, wondering where I was going to find the antidote to the poison of a creature that I'd never heard of. Then it came to me.  
I called for Vasilisa, who came running in to the bedroom.  
"Call her parents." I said, my mouth set in a grim line.


	6. Chapter 6

Dimitri POV

Vasilisa took the phone from me and dialled a number, holding the phone up to her ear. I shouldn't have been surprised that she would have known the number by heart but I was. It was the reason that I hadn't called myself. I would have had to get the number out of Roza's phone, which would have meant leaving her side and I couldn't do that.  
"Janine isn't answering." She said.  
"Call Lord Szelzky."  
Vasilisa nodded and dialled another number, waiting patiently for it to be answered. Someone must have answered because she spoke. "Hello, I'm trying to reach Guardian Hathaway... Yes, I'm aware of the time... No, I can't call back at a more civilised hour. It's important that I speak to her immediately..."  
I could tell that she was becoming impatient and she finally snapped.  
"Whom am I speaking to?... Right, well. Please inform Guardian Hathaway that Queen Vasilisa Sabina Rhea Dragomir wishes speak to her immediately... Yes, you do that." I gave her a tight smile and she returned it. "Apparantly, Lady Szelzky doesn't like to be woken up at such an uncivilised hour." She said.  
"That's a shame." I said and turned my attention back to Roza. Her temperature was rising and I knew that Yeva had been right. We were running out of time.  
"Janine, it's about Rose... No. She was attacked and she's been poisoned... We're with her now but the doctor had an emergency and he won't be able to see her for a while... We don't know... Dimitri asked me to call you... Yes, he's here... Okay."  
She held the phone out to me and I took it, preparing myself for the onslaught of questions that were sure to follow.  
"Belikov?"  
"I'm here."  
"Is she all right?"  
"She's been poisoned. Her wound is infected. She has a fever but she seems to be stable for now."  
"Why isn't the doctor there?"  
"A Moroi woman went in to labour, he's trying to save her and the baby."  
"I don't care about her child, I care about mine. Why doesn't Court have more than one doctor?"  
"Dhampirs rarely get sick, it's usually simple proceedures. Morois only have the occasional blood test or minor injuries." I knew that she knew that, but she wasn't thinking straight. All she could think of was her daughter being sick and needing medical attention.  
"What kind of poison is it?"  
"We're not entirely sure at the moment but we believe that it's from an Amphisbaena."  
"That's ridiculous. The Amphisbaena is a creature of myth. They don't exist."  
"And as far as the rest of the world is concerned, neither do we. I have it on good authority that-"  
"Whose good authority?"  
"My grandmother's."  
"Your grandmother who thinks that she's some kind of seer?"  
"Janine, this isn't the time. I need to speak to Abe."  
"Why?"  
"Because if anyone has the resources to track down an antidote for Roza, then it's him."  
"Yes, of course. I'll call him now."  
"Hurry. We don't have much time."  
She made a noise low in her throat, the noise that only a mother with a breaking heart could make. My eyes watered at the sound but I blinked them away as she promised that she'd call him as soon as she hung up with me and then she'd leave for Court immediately afterwards.

Vasilisa was still standing in the room, staring down at Roza. She walked to the other side of the bed and sat down, tucking on of her legs underneath herself as she did so. She took Roza's hand in hers and smiled down at her friend. "Even like this, she's still so beautiful."  
"Yes." I said quietly.  
"You know, I used to be so jealous of her. She was always beautiful and I would have killed for her body – after puberty any way. She seemed to go from a flat-chested child to a curvaceous woman over night. That combined with her attitude... I always wished that I could be her, just for one day."  
"Why?"  
"Because everyone liked her. Not so much the teachers but the students did." She swiped a tear from the corner of her eye and huffed out a laugh. "It's crazy if you think about it. Most people would want to look like me but I always wanted to be just like her. People were only nice to me because of my name or my brother or because they felt sorry for me. Everyone except Rose. She's loved me since the day we met."  
"I know."  
"I never wanted it to be like this. I didn't want her to have to risk her life me all the time."  
"You saved her, too."  
"I know but sometimes I think that she'd be better off if I hadn't. If I hadn't been so selfish, if I'd let her go, none of this would have happened to her."  
"It isn't your fault."  
"Maybe this isn't, but the rest of it is. Victor, Mason, you, Adrian... Everything that's happened to her has happened because I saved her."  
"She doesn't blame you." I said, rested my hand on her back awkwardly. "She loves you. You're her family."  
"She has her own family. Janine and Abe. You."  
"I'm not her family."  
"Yes, you are. The only way that she would have let you love her so much or even lived with you, is if she thought of you as her family. She's never felt this way about anyone, Dimitri."  
"Neither have I."  
"If she wakes up, you have to do something for me." She said, shifting slightly on the bed so that her jade eyes held mine. "You should make it official. Get married. Spend forever loving each other, the way that she deserves to be loved."  
"She doesn't believe in marriage."  
"She didn't believe in marriage before she met you. She might now. She deserves to have her happy ending, Dimitri, and you're the only one that can give it to her." She stood up and after a long, lingering look at Roza, she left me alone with her.


	7. Chapter 7

Dimitri POV

It took three hours for Janine to arrive at the front door of mine and Roza's apartment. She didn't knock, she just walked straight in and demanded to see Roza. I took her in to our bedroom and as soon as she saw Roza, she crumbled. I'd never seen Janine show emotion or weakness. She was a guardian that had gained an incredible reputation for her fierceness and lack of emotion, always able to keep a clear head in difficult times. Obviously those same qualities weren't applicable when her child was in danger.  
She knelt at the side of our bed and rested her forehead against Roza's hand, muttering something to herself. It took me a moment to realise that she was praying. It had always amazed me how people that weren't particularly religious always seemed to pray to one God or another in times of peril though I supposed that people would try anything to keep their loved ones safe.  
The doctor had been to check on Roza but had said that there was nothing that he could do for her. He didn't know what kind of poison had been used, though he had confirmed that she'd been poisoned. He'd told us to make her comfortable and do our best to keep her fever down with ice packs.  
I'd stayed by her side, replacing her melted ice packs for new ones and watching as the thick green lines spread across her body. They were climbing up the side of her beautiful face, down her ribs and across her chest. I kept watching the clock, counting the minutes until her parents arrived. It had been Hell to watch her like this and know that there nothing that I could do for her. Seeing Janine with her, I knew that she felt exactly the same way. I told Janine that the doctor had been but he had little hope of being able to save her without knowing which poison was used.  
"Abe will be here soon. He'll know what to do." She said, her voice sure but wavering. "He'll be here."  
"He'll be here." I said and glanced up at the clock. Yeva had said that we had twelve hours to save my Roza. We only had eight and a half left. I hoped that he would get here in time.  
After a while, Janine couldn't stand to see her daughter like that; to watch as the green lines continued to travel. She excused herself and left us alone.  
I laid down on the bed next to my Roza, resting my head on her chest and putting an arm over her, keeping her close to me. I listened to her heart beating, knowing that it was slowly getting weaker. He heart didn't pound the way that it usually did and it was starting to miss beats every so often. I was losing her, I knew it. I also knew that there was nothing that I'd be able to do.

I must have fallen asleep at some point because when I woke, Sydney Sage was standing over us. She was trying to wake me gently, smiling down at me with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.  
"Sydney? What are you doing here?"  
"Abe called me and said that I needed to be here." She said and looked down at Roza. "How much time does she have?"  
I looked up at the clock and a cold wave of dread washed over me. I'd been asleep for almost five hours. "Three hours. Possibly longer."  
"Did strigoi really do this to her?"  
I nodded but didn't say anything. There was nothing that I could say. To fight the tears that threatened to come, I focused on the golden lily that was tattooed on Sydney's cheek. It glittered in the fading sunlight that came through the blinds but became blurry as my eyes watered.  
"She's going to be okay, Dimitri. Abe and I have a plan." She said, sounding much more confident than she looked.  
"What kind of plan?"  
"The kind that saves her." Sydney said but didn't elaborate.  
Ibrahim Mazur burst in to the room then, stopping in the doorway as he looked down at his daughter. His eyes filled with tears as he looked down at her, which was somehow worse than seeing Janine in the same state. Abe Mazur has earned himself a reputation over the years and this show of emotion was the biggest contradiction to that reputation that I'd ever seen. In that moment, it was clear to see that his daughter was his weakness. She was the one thing that he loved more than anything else in the world and she wasn't able to see it.  
He walked forward slowly and stopped at the end of the bed, resting his hands on her feet. "You can do this, Sage?"  
"I won't know until I've tested the poison." She said calmly, watching him closely.  
"Then hurry up and test it." He snapped and then turned on me. "Where were you?"  
"I-"  
"Where were you when my daughter was getting attacked and poisoned?" He said quietly, though the anger in his voice was palpable.  
"I was asleep. She snook out while I was asleep. I didn't know." I said, the tears threatening to surface again.  
"She was supposed to be on bed rest."  
"Abe, it isn't his fault." Vasilisa's angelic voice came from the doorway.  
He turned to face her. "He was supposed to protect her."  
"Rose is too stubborn for that, Abe. You know that as well as anyone." She said and went to him. She rested her hand on his shoulder and guided him from the room. "There are things that you should know." She said as they went down the hall towards the living room.  
I turned back to Sydney just as she pulled out a syringe and went towards Roza with it.  
"What are you doing?"  
"I need to extract some of the poison to test its origin."

"Your grandmother was right. It's definitely the poison of an Amphisbaena. It's amazing really. They were thought to be extinct for nearly three hundred years until an explorer found a colony of them on a remote island in Greece. He was bitten but managed to make back to the mainland before he died. Of course, no one knew what had happened to him so they went to the island to find out. They found the Amphisbaenas, though they were never moved. They're still there now, though you'll never find the island on any human map. They're too special to be found by humans. They'd try to kill them and use them for some sort of medicine or something equally absurd."  
I nodded along as Sydney spoke, knowing that this was her way. She was an alchemist. She knew things that ordinary people didn't. It was easy to see why Mazur had asked her to come. If anyone could help Roza, it was Sydney. "Can you help her?"  
"I think so." She said and turned to her case of chemicals. Alchemists were incredibly talented when it came to chemicals and metals; knowing which compounds would work well with others. "I just need to extract as much poison as I can from Rose to mix it with the antidote. You might want to leave, this isn't going to be pretty."  
I shook my head and sat up, holding Roza's hand firmly in mine. "What can I do?"  
"Hold her down. She's unconcious, but she'll probably still feel some pain. If she's writhing around, I could injure her."  
I nodded and placed one hand on Roza's shoulder and the other on her hip, apply firm pressure to keep her as still as possible. I watched with horror as Sydney pulled put various instruments; a scalpel, three different syringes and a rubber tube. As far as I was aware, Sydney Sage was no doctor but I didn't want to question her. I'd let her do whatever it took if she could save my Roza.  
"Are you ready?" She asked.  
I nodded, knowing that if I opened my mouth I'd say no. I watch as Sydney ran the blade of her scalpel along the thickest of the green lines that came from Roza's wounds. She pressed hard, blood and poison oozed from the wound and ran down on to the bed beneath her. Roza's body started to shake under my hands so I held her tightly, trying to keep her still. Sydney pulled out one of the syringes and drew up some of Roza's blood, the poison with it, and set it down on the nightstand. She did this with the other two syringes and then bandaged the fresh slice on Roza's arm.  
"You should take a break, Dimitri. The antidote will take a while. I'll stay with her." Sydney said, placing her hand on my arm gently. She must have noticed my hesitation because she smiled. "It's okay. We'll have a little girl time."  
I nodded but couldn't look away from my poor Roza. Her hair was fanned out on the pillow and she would have looked peaceful, if it weren't for the deep green lines that almost completely covered her skin. They were inching their way up her beautiful face now and there was nothing that I could do to stop them. I closed my eyes against the tears that threatened to come and excused myself.

* * *

Note -

Hey guys,

Sorry that it's taken so long for me to update! I got married last week and with all the planning and the aftermath... Oh, and my dogs had puppies. I've got six little boxer puppies running around my house! Rose and Dimitri fell to the back burner for a while but I'm back and so are they and we'll be continuing with the story.  
I uploaded a few chapters yesterday but I figured that I owe you guys an explanation.  
Feel free to review and give me your thoughts and opinions, tell me what you like or don't like and I'll do my best to give everyone what they want.

And I haven't actually done this yet so "I don't own the VA series or any of the characters, unless I slip in any of my own. The plot idea is mine though."


	8. Chapter 8

Dimitri POV

I went in to the living room, leaving Roza in the capable hands of Sydney. I had time before I need to go back to her and my stomach was growling. I didn't make it to the kitchen though because everyone was arguing in hushed tones. No one noticed as I stood in the doorway, trying to understand what was happening.  
Abe was hissing at Vasilisa. "This is all your fault. Your her best friend, her sister. You should have known what was happening to her."  
"This isn't her fault. She's been going through a lot since they lost the bond. Rose didn't tell her what was going on."  
"I wasn't talking to you, Ozera. You want to talk about who's to blame for that?" Abe asked, throwing his arm in Roza's direction. "Let's talk about your aunt, shall we? She did this to my daughter."  
"She's dead." Christian said simply.  
"She did this. She's responsible. Your family have brought nothing but trouble to mine."  
"Abe-"  
"No, Janine. She did this. She framed our daughter for the murder of Tatiana. She was going to let her be executed. She shot her. The girls lost their bond and now this... We could lose her."  
Janine moaned, an agonising sound that tore through me. She was feeling the same pain that I was, though I suppose hers was different. There was something about mothers and their children, something that I would never be able to understand.  
"No one could have known what she was going through, Abe." Christian said calmly. "We didn't know about the letters until she told us."  
"She would have come to you sooner if she felt that she could."  
"You don't know that. Rose isn't the kind of person that burdens other people. She was seeing ghosts for a long time before she told anyone." Christian pointed out. "You didn't even know her then. You can't come in here and blame us for not doing something when you were absent for most of her life. As were you." He said to Janine.  
"How dare you speak to us like-"  
"Perhaps we should all calm down." I said, interupting them before it went to far. "Tearing each other apart won't help Roza."  
"How is she?" Janine asked.  
"The same. Sydney is working on the antidote." I said, running a hand through my hair.  
"Will it work? Will she be okay?" Janine asked.I didn't know what to say to her. I didn't want to lie to her or give her false hope. I also didn't want to give up hope. It was difficult to know what to say to her, but thankfully I didn't have to work it out.  
Sydney came in with a sombre expression. "I've given Rose the antidote and it appears to be working. The poison is working it's way out of her system slowly but surely. It shouldn't be too long until she's awake, if you'd like to come and wait."  
Abe and Janine, Vasilisa and Christian and even the guardians went in to Roza's room. Sydney stayed in the living room with me.  
"Thank you, Sydney." I said, knowing that I would never be able to repay her for saving my Roza.  
"You're welcome, Dimitri."  
"How did you find the antidote?"  
"It was simple really. There's a rhyme that I learned when I was a child. My father had taken my sister and I on vacation to Australia. Of course, it wasn't really a vacation, it was a job. Not that we knew that at the time. Australia is well known for it's venomous animals, so we learned a rhyme. Red touches yellow, kills a fellow. Red touches black, venom lack. Yellow touches red, soon you'll be dead. Red touches black, friend of Jack."  
"I'll have to remember that."  
"They don't have too many snakes here at Court, or in Russia for that matter."  
"No, they don't. How did that apply to the Amphisbaena?"  
"Part of being an Alchemist is knowing everything that goes on in the world. I had to make a few calls and feign interest in the Amphisbaena and their gifts. I managed to get a description emailed over to me." She took out her phone and showed me a photograph.  
The Amphisbaena, the creature of myth and legend, really did exist. It looked a lot like the pictures of dragons that I'd seen when I was boy, the only difference was that it had two head. Its tail was similar to a snake's, the colours were red and yellow, which really told me nothing other than it was poisonous, but we already knew that.  
"So," Sydney continued. "The next thing was to work out what kind of poison it was. Some venoms can kill instantly, some within the hour and some takes days to actually kill the victim. Take King Cobras for example; one bite and a healthy adult human will be dead within fifteen minutes without immediate medical care. Of course, my contact also gave me that information. The average time for the Amphisbaena venom to kill is around eighteen to twenty hours but then it depends how much was administered. Rose could have been given more or less than an average dose. The only known antidote is mixture of chemicals which thankfully are all in my kit. Liquid calcium, Europium, Iodine, Iron, Zinc and Xenon. All mized together over a low eat and then the poison has to be added last. Of course, the poison was tainted with Roza's blood but it's really the best that we can hope for under the circumstances."  
"She's going to be okay?"  
"She'll have a headache for a few days and her arm will need to heal but othwerwise, she should be just fine." Sydney said and then went back in to the bedroom to check on her patient.

I was alone in the living room, wondering if my Roza was really going to be okay. I wanted to go to her, to be there for her when she woke up but I wasn't sure that I could be. In some ways, I couldn't help but feel guilty for what had happened to her.  
Christian was right, Roza rarely burdened others with her problems but Abe had been right also. If she'd have felt like she could come to us, she would have done it sooner. She wouldn't have had to leave Court so that she had space to think things through and then she'd have been fine. Abe had asked me where I was but I didn't have an answer for him. I'd been with Roza every day since she'd been shot. I'd helped her to manage the pain, to shower, to sit up properly in those first weeks when she hadn't been able to do it for herself. I'd kept her company and made sure that she took care of herself. I'd done everything that I knew to do and yet it still hadn't been enough.  
She'd said that I was suffocating her but I'd just been trying to help her. Perhaps this really was my fault. Perhaps I was the reason that she'd left the safety of Court or hadn't felt that she could show me the threats. I couldn't understand why though. I'd done nothing but try to help her.  
We hadn't been intimate since Roza had been shot, which I knew she was happy about. She'd been snapping at me for a couple of weeks before this. Was that the issue or had she finally worked out that I wasn't worthy of her, that she could do better. That she could have someone that could give her the world when all I could give her was myself. I'd always known that children weren't something that Roza had planned for herself, but I'd always thought that she should have that option. With me, it would never be an option. I'd always wanted children myself and adored my sisters' children but it was something that I was willing to let go of for her. Could she do the same for me?  
I busied myself with tidying up the living room, taking the cups in to the kitchen and washing them. I didn't know how long I'd been doing it but Christian came to find me whilst I was putting them back in the cupboard.  
"Are you okay?" He asked.  
I nodded but didn't trust myself to answer him.  
"Are you sure? I don't think I'd be okay if it were Liss lying there." He said and rested his hand awkwardly on my shoulder.  
Christian and I had become close over the last few months. After Ivan died, I'd always sworn that I would never become attached to a charge but with Chrisitan it was different. I was his guardian and he was my charge but it was more than that. His girlfriend was my girlfriend's best friend, so we socialised together a lot. We stuck together when the girls ganged up on us. I'd become attached to him, as I had Vasilisa, and I appreciated his concern. "I'll be okay when she's awake."  
"Then I suggest you go in there with a smile on your face. She's awake." He said.  
"She is?" I asked, almost dropping the cup that I was holding.  
"She's got a headache but the first person that she asked for was you."  
"Is she all right?"  
"As well as can be expected I think. She's confused and her arm hurts but she's fine." Christian said, takin the cup from my hands. "Go."  
I walked away from him without another word and headed to our bedroom. I couldn't see her at first because everyone was crowding around her. The guardians were around the walls of our room, Abe and Janine were sitting on either side of her and Vasilisa was by her feet. I went closer to the bed and my heart almost stopped when I saw her.  
Her skin still had a faint green tinge to it when the poison had webbed out but otherwise, she looked like herself. She smiled and held her hand out to me invitation. I took it and let her pull me towards her.  
"Hey, Comrade." She said. It was wonderful to hear her voice again.


	9. Chapter 9

Rose POV

It had been ten weeks since I'd woken up to my family leaning over me with tears in their eyes. I had a banging headache and the cries of 'Oh, thank God you're alive' and been too much. I had no idea why I wouldn't be alive and then I was confused as to why I was in bed. The last thing I remembered was leaving Lissa's apartment in towels.  
Apparently, I'd been poisoned by the strigois that had attacked me and I'd almost died or something equally dramatic. After everyone told me off for being irresponsible and scaring them all, I'd been allowed to heal in relative peace. Abe and Janine had decided that I couldn't be trusted to be left unsupervised, so they'd moved in to the apartment a few doors down from ours. Together. Apparently they were making a go of their relationship. The stress of seeing me almost die had brought them together. Abe had brought his own guardians with him, so the floor that we all lived on was better protected than Fort Knox. Janine had taken over as Lissa's guardians, though she had stressed that it was only until I was back on my feet and ready to protect her myself.  
Liss was doing much better. She and Adrian were working together to make healing charms to keep the darkness and the madness of spirit at bay. She'd stopped using spirit for the most part and she seemed a lot happier. Christian definitely was; he no longer had to hide things from her.  
Dimitri had been watching me like a hawk and when he couldn't be with me, he'd made sure that someone was. Eddie had become closer to me than my own shadow, helping me work out when Dimitri was on duty. He also gave Dimitri a full report on my progress at the end of every day. It had started to get old pretty quickly but I knew how much it meant to Dimitri.  
I'd gotten no more threats since I was poisoned and I was able to relax. I'd paranoid for quite a while and wouldn't go anywhere alone and if Dimitri was out, I'd invite someone over or lock the doors and windows. It had been ten weeks since then and I was doing much better though.  
Eric's slashes had healed but I was left with four jagged scars on my arm that went well with my gun shot scar that Tasha had given me. Christian said that they made it look like I'd earned my bad ass reputation. Which was funny because the next thing he'd asked me to do was the furthest thing from bad ass.  
He'd asked me to help him with something. He and Dimitri were waiting for me in the garage with nervous smiles on their faces.  
"What's going on?" I asked as I stopped in front of them.  
"I need you to come shopping with me." Christian said.  
"Ugh, I hate shopping. Are you punishing me for something?" I asked. "Take Liss, she loves all the shopping stuff."  
"I can't take her."  
"Why not?"  
"Because I'm buying something for her."  
"Well, as long as it's pink or shiny, I'm sure she'll love it. Have fun." I said and turned away from them.  
"Rose, wait." Christian called. "I need you to help me pick something that she'd like because you're her best friend and if I pick wrong then she won't tell me. And it needs to be perfect because she's going to have to wear it for the rest of her life and-"  
I was vaguely aware that my mouth was hanging open but in that moment I didn't care. "Are you... Are you going to propose?"  
He nodded with a smile. I looked over to Dimitri and he was smiling too, which was very uncommon for him when he was on duty.  
"You want me to help you choose her engagement ring?"  
"If you don't mind. I just, I need it to be perfect."  
"Wow. Fire boy actually has a heart under all of that snark and sarcasm." I said with a smile of my own.  
"Yeah, well, don't tell anyone. You'll ruin my street cred or whatever."  
"Oh, Christian. You've never had street cred." I said and threw my arms around him. "I really happy for you."  
"Thanks. Can we go now? All this affection will bring me out in hives." He said and wriggled his way out of my embrace.  
"Let's take our boy shopping, Comrade." I said to Dimitri and got in to the car.  
Dimitri and I were in the front because Christian had magazines spread out on the back seat. It was kind of cute, watching him flicking through bridal magazines looking for inspiration. Every so often he'd pass one through to me, show me a picture of an engagement ring and ask me what I thought. I liked them, as much as anyone that never wears rings can, but none of them really said 'Lissa'.  
"You'll know the right one when you see it." I promised him, hoping that I was right.  
Apparently, I wasn't. We'd been to six different jewellery shops and we still hadn't found the perfect ring for Liss. The options were endless. Yellow gold, white gold, platinum. Solitares, accents, vintage or trilogy. Diamonds or precious gems. One carat or a thousand carats... It was all so tedious.  
Dimitri was staying quiet, offering no help or support at all. It was down to Christian and I to make a decision but we were both at a loss. Which one would she like the most? Which style would suit her the best? We'd been shopping for three hours, my feet were sore and I was exhausted. The shop assistants were too busy eyeing up Dimitri to be of any real help, which only made me angrier. He didn't seem to notice though, he was too busy watching the perimeter and looking out for weird people. There wouldn't be many though, seeing as we were at a human mall in the middle of the afternoon.  
I was complaining that I was hungry, so we broke for lunch. As I sat at a table with Christian, digging in to my burger, a thought hit me. Mrs Dragomir had had a truly beautiful engagement ring that had always been on her finger with her wedding ring. It had been a light green stone with diamonds around. The ring was yellow gold and had been right in between dainty and fancy. Liss and I had spent most of our childhood wishing that when we got married, we'd have a ring just as beautiful.  
I had no idea what had happened to the ring after Mrs Dragomir had died, but I knew that Liss didn't have it. I asked Dimitri for a pen and then drew a picture of it on my napkin. It wasn't a great picture but it was clear what it was supposed to me. I showed it to Christian and explained the story behind it and he knew, just as I did, that that ring would be perfect for Liss.  
We rushed off the nearest jewellery store and asked if they had anything like. Of course, they didn't but they'd be able to make something similar. Christian told them what stones he wanted, the setting and the metal, told them her ring size and left them a deposit.  
Finally, after four exhausting hours, we had the perfect ring for Liss. It wouldn't be ready for two weeks, which gave him plenty of time to plan the perfect proposal.

When we got back to Court, Dimitri and I headed home, got changed and then headed down to the gym. He'd been promising me for a week that we'd hit the gym together but we hadn't had the opportunity yet.  
The gym was busy when we arrived, so we warmed up quickly then started to run laps around the outside. After ten laps, the mats freed up so Dimitri asked if I wanted to spar. Of course, I did. I'd always loved sparring with Dimitri and it often became a sort of foreplay for the two of us. The moves, the adrenaline, being in such close contact with such a God had always gotten me going.  
We moved over to the mats and I was dimly aware of the sudden hush that fell over the gym as everyone stopped what they were doing to watch Dimitri and I sparring. It was the way that it had always been, everyone stopped and watched the two of us with a combination of awe and jealousy.  
He was taking it easy on me seeing as I was technically still recovering, but we were still going hard at each other. I tried to keep my mind focused on the task at hand but I all I could think about was pinning him to the ground and having my way with him. He must have been thinking the same because he gave me a sly smile before lunging at me again. I blocked him and returned the favour, aiming for his neck. We swiped and blocked, lunged and ducked at each other until our bodies were covered in sweat. I wait for the oppurtune moment to put him on his ass and when I see it, I take it. I swept my foot out, hooking it behind is ankle and swept his feet out from under him. I held on to him so that he wouldn't hit the ground too hard and stradled his hips, bringing my fist down over his heart.  
"You're dead, Comrade." I said and he smiled up at me. I shifted my hips against his, basking in the thought of what I could do to the man beneath me. He closed his eyes as he thought for control and then grabbed my hips, moving me off him.  
Everyone was still watching us until Dimitri cleared his throat and then they scurried off back to whatever they had been doing before.  
Dimitri put an arm over my shoulder and pressed his nose in to my hair. "Let's go home, Roza."  
"Okay."  
"I need a shower."  
"So do I."  
"Perhaps we should conserve water and shower together." He said in a low voice.  
I never thought that talking about conserving water would be so sexy, but it really was. I nodded and let him lead me home.

The next day, Christian came over and handed us an invitation to a party. It was a surprise engaement party for Liss. Apparently his master plan was to surprise her in front of everyone she knew, which I couldn't see going too well.  
"The whole point of proposing," I said to Dimitri after Christian had left, "is that it's private."  
"It is?"  
"Well, it's kind of hard to be romantic in front of a room full of people. I mean, pouring your heart out is so much easier when it's just you and the person that you love."  
"Perhaps." Dimitri said with a frown. "Or perhaps it's about creating memories that will last for a life time. Anyone can book a table at a restaurant and hide the ring in a glass of champagne or a cake. Proposing in front of a room full of people, confessing your love and promising to always love a person, that's something to be remembered."  
"You can't promise to love someone forever. People change. Liss and Christian won't be the same people forever. He might cheat on her or the power of being the Queen might go to her head. She could go crazy of the spirit and go on a murder spree. That's the kind of thing that makes it hard to love someone through."  
"Yes, but loving someone enough to see their problems and help them through it, before it ever gets to the murdering stage, would be better."  
"It's not always that easy, Comrade." I said, thinking back to the strigoi attack. I loved Dimitri more than anything but I hadn't gone to him with my problem. "Sometimes, you just don't want to drag the people that you love down with you."  
"And sometimes you go to a different country to find the person that you love and attempt to stake them because you know that the real them wouldn't want to be like that." He said, remembering when I did exactly that for him. "There is no right or wrong way to propose, Roza."  
"Maybe but I wouldn't like to feel like I'm being forced in to saying yes. She can hardly say no in front of everyone, can she?"  
"Do you really think that she'd say no?" He asked.  
"Well, I don't know. She's the Queen. She's young, she's got her whole life in front of her. She wouldn't be Queen Vasilisa Dragomir, she'd be Queen Ozera."  
"Names don't work that way with the royals, you know that. Christian will take her name and become Lord Ozera Dragomir."  
"That's not the point. She's barely eighteen, she can't get married."  
"She can't get married but she can rule over all the Moroi?" Dimitri asked, cocking his eyebrow in that really sexy but really annoying way that he had. "Roza, she loves Christian and Christian loves her. They've been together for longer than we have and they're ready to make it permanent. There's nothing wrong with that."  
"I never said there was anything wrong."  
"Then why does it sound like you're practicing your argument so that you can talk her out of it?" He asked, knowing me far too well.  
Perhaps not that well though. I had no problem with Liss and Christian getting married and making tiny Dragomirs. They could fill a castle with babies for all I cared. I just didn't want Dimitri getting any ideas. I didn't want to get married. I didn't want to go from Guardian Hathaway to Guardian Belikov. I could hear the conversations in my mind; 'Get Guardian Belikov', 'Which one?', 'The female one'. I'd built up my reputation over the years and I wasn't about to lose it over a change of name. Of course, Dimitri would probably argue that I could keep my name but it was more than that. Guardians died all the time and I knew that it would be that much harder to lose Dimitri if we were married. At least as we were, it would be less painful. Only slightly, but that extra bit would probably kill both of us and I died, I expected Dimitri to look after Liss and Christian, not sit around moping. It might not have been the best reasons to not get married but they were mine and I was standing by them.

* * *

The weeks flew by and before I knew it, it was the day of the party and we had so much to do. I had to go and pick Lissa's ring up with Christian and Dimitri, I had to buy a party dress, I had to help some of the guardians decorate the hall and still get myself ready.  
We picked up the ring and I bought a dress, excusing myself so that they wouldn't see it. We drive back to Court and I helped to decorate the hall where the party was going to be with glittering hearts and streamers, fairy lights and balloons. We managed to make it look romantic without clearly saying 'you're getting engaged'. We did blow up some balloons and managed to get the in a net, tied to the ceiling so that we she sad yes, the congratulations balloons would float down around them.  
When we'd finished, I went home and showered and then perved at Dimitri as he put his suit on.  
He didn't wear it very often, only to important guardian events like trials, but damn he looked good in it. It fit him well and didn't hide his muscles and when he put his tie on, I wanted to pull him to the bed with it. I didn't though, knowing that this was an important night for Liss and that I couldn't miss it.  
I dried my hair, leaving in waves down my back but pinning one side back so that it was off my face. I applied a little make up; mascara, a little eyeliner and a deep red lipstick that matched my dress perfectly. The dress itself was a wine red colour that flared out at my hips. It was knee length and hugged my body in all the right places.  
I'd obviously chosen well because when I went to find Dimitri, his eyes glazed over in pure lust.  
"I can't wait until the party is over, my Roza." He said in a low voice.  
"We aren't even there yet."  
"Then hurry up. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can get back." He said and kissed my temple.  
We made it to the party before Liss and Christian and got ourselves a drink and mingled amongst the guests. Everyone was there; Eddie and Mia, Abe and Janene, most of the royal Moroi and most of the dhampirs too.  
Adrian came over to us and smiled at me for the first time in months. "Hey, little dhampir. You look beautiful."  
"Thanks. You don't look so bad yourself." I said. In all honesty, he looked amazing. His hair had been combed to the side instead of his usually messy style, he was wearing a grey suit with a black shirt and a silver tie. He looked like he should have been walking down the red carpet of some movie premiere. I leaned in to hug him. "I've missed you, Adrian."  
"I've missed you too, little dhampir. I just needed some time." He said as he hugged me back.  
"I know." I said, fighting the urge to apologise to him yet again. He hadn't spoken to me since after I'd been shot. I'd crushed his heart by choosing Dimitri over him but I was confident that one day soon, he'd find his own person to love. Someone that could love him back and love him the way that he deserved.  
Judging by the look on that he had on his face right then, it wouldn't take as long as I'd thought. I followed his gaze to the door and smiled when I saw who he was looking at. Sydney Sage walked in, looking beautiful in a beige shift dress. She had on low, sensible heels and the lightest touch of make up, which was very Alchemist of her. It was who she was though, smart, proffessional and never one to draw unnecessary attention to herself. And she didn't find Morois or dhampirs as repulsive as her colleagues.  
Her eyes landed on me and a look of relief flashed over her face. She came over and smiled. "Hi, Rose. I'm glad that I know someone here."  
"You know plenty of people." I said. "Liss and Christian will be here soon. This is Adrian Ivashkov. Eddie's over there and Abe is around somewhere."  
At the mention of Abe she frowned. I'd first met Sydney in Russia and she'd known my father. Apparently she owed him for something or he had some serious dirt on her, because she'd been sort of working for him. She'd been there as an Alchemist but when she was need, all Abe had to do was call. He'd also forced her to take Dimitri and I across the country when I'd escaped from jail. We'd become friends, but she still didn't like my father.  
Speaking of my father, Abe was making his way over to us. "Miss Sage, how lovely to see you. I wasn't expecting you to be here."  
"Neither was I, but apparently saving the Queen's best friend and guardian gets me invited to such things." She said. She was being cold but she was keeping a professional distance.  
"Ah, you're here socially. I thought you'd be here on behalf of the Alchemists."  
"No. I'm here because I was invited by Lord Ozera."  
"Good, good." Abe said, a mischeivous glint in his eyes. "Tell me, Miss Sage. How is your sister?"  
The colour drained from Sydney's face but she quickly recovered. "She's just fine, thank you."  
"No more bother from that boy?"  
"No."  
"Good." He said. I looked at the two of them and I was sure that they were silently communicating. Sydney looked uncomfortable but Abe looked as if he'd just conquered the world.  
"Excuse me." Sydney said and walked away from us.  
I turned to Abe, my hands on my hips. "What the hell was that?"  
"Nothing, kiz. Just catching up." He said.  
I knew that he was lying to me but I didn't have the chance to press because Liss and Christian arrived then.  
Liss looked like a radiant angel. She was wearing a pale pink dress and her platinum blonde hair fell around her shoulders in soft ringlets. She clutched Christian's hand tightly as they made their way through crowd, everyone bowing slightly as she passed them. Everyone except me, of course. I wrapped my arms around and told her that she looked beautiful and then nodded at Christian. They made their way through crowd, greeting people with an appropriate amount of authority and then Christian took her straight up the stage. I was surprised. I'd expected him to give her a little time to adjust to having so many people around. Instead, the music was shut off and he held a microphone in his hand as he addressed the crowd. If nothing else, he would make a fine royal one day.  
"Thank you for joining us tonight. I know that it was short notice and I appreciate that each of you came. The reason that we're having this party is hopefully to celebrate." He turned to Liss and smiled at her. I'd never seen him look at her like that before and I knew that he loved her. He slowly got down on one knee and brought out a ring box. "Vasilisa Sabina Reah Dragomir, you and I have been through a lot together. Crazy morois, psi hounds, crazy friends and troubled relatives. We've managed to conquer everything that we've come up against. You've made my life so much better by allowing me to be a part of yours and will never be able to thank you enough. You are everything to me. Every day I am in awe of your beauty and compassion, your morality and your fairness. I knew from the first time we met in the attic of the church that I wanted you in my life, though I never thought that it would be like this. You inspire me everyday with your patience and kindness. I love you more than I ever thought possible, Lissa. Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"  
He put down the microphone and opened the box, presenting the ring to Liss. She wiped tears away from her eyes and nodded, without even looking at the ring. He took it out of the box and slipped it on to her finger before standing up and spinning her around, showering her face with kisses.  
Everyone applauded the happy couple and down came the balloons, falling to Lissa's feet, though she wasn't paying attention to them.  
"Don't cry, Roza." Dimitri's voice said from beside me. He wiped my tears away with his thumbs and kissed me.  
"I'm not crying." I said and smiled up at him. "I'm just really happy for her."  
"You are?"  
I nodded and kissed him. "She didn't even look at the ring though. All those hours we spent trying to find the perfect one and she didn't even look at it."  
"She'll love it when she sees it, Roza." Dimitri promised and I knew that he was right.  
"Ah, my daughter. Not only the guardian of the Queen but of Alchemists too."  
"She isn't here as an alchemist. She's here as our friend."  
"Perhaps, but she's still in debt to me."  
"Why?"  
"That's between myself and Miss Sage."  
"Come on, old man. Don't you think that she's done enough for you? She took Dimitri and I across the country which is aiding and abbetting a fugitive or two. Then she came and saved my life when she didn't have to. Isn't that enough for you?"  
"She's still in my debt, Rose." He said firmly.  
"What because saving your daughter's life is the equivalent to lending you some money?" I asked, aware that I was on the verge of shouting. "You need to let her go."  
"She is in my debt until I tell her other wise. Saving your life was a big thing and I appreciate it, but it's nothing compared to what I did for her." He said and turned away from me.  
"And what exactly did you do for her that is so much more important than me?" I asked, closing the distance between us.  
"That's none of your concern, Rose. You can't protect everyone. The sooner you realise that, the happier you'll be."  
"Like you were?"  
"Excuse me?"  
"You know, when you ignored me for seventeen years."  
"I never ignored you, Rose but there was little that I could do for you. You were at the academy. I came to you when I could."  
"The only reason that you came to me was because I was in Russia. You didn't come to me or even let me know that I had a father. I knew nothing about you. I didn't even know your name or where you were from. I mean sure, it was pretty obvious that I didn't take after my mother seeing as she has red hair and mine is dark. You could have been Greek for all I knew."  
"I did the best that I could with the situation that I was given, Rose. I have always been your father and I demand the respect that I deserve."  
"When I have my own children, I'll make damned sure that my best is better than yours." I snapped.  
"You're not planning on staying with Belikov then?"  
"Excuse me?"  
"Well, the two of you won't be able to have children of your own and he doesn't strike me as the kind of man to stand aside whilst his girlfriend sleeps with other men. Blood whores aren't really his type, are they?" He said with an evil smile and walked away from me. He went back in to the party and I stayed outside, needing the time to cool down. I sat outside the hall and seethed for a while, knowing that I was in no fit state to go back in to the party.  
My father just called me a blood whore. It was funny really, coming from the man that had probably bedded more blood whores than any other man alive. I was in no mood to go back in to the party, knowing that if I did, I'd ending up beating my own dad to a pulp. I took a deep breath and went to find Dimitri.

I found him talking to Liss and Christian and went over to them.  
"Rose," Liss said and threw her arms around me. "thank you."  
"You're welcome." I said and hugged her back.  
"This is the prefect ring. It's-"  
"Just like your mother's. I know."  
"You remembered?"  
"Liss, I've loved that ring since I was six years old, of course I remembered." I said and then let go of her. "Congratulations."  
"Thanks." Christian said with a warm smile.  
"Rose, will you be my maid of honour?" Liss asked excitedly.  
"Of course." I said and then turned to Dimitri. "Can I borrow you for a minute?"  
His guardian mask slipped on immediately. "Is there a problem?"  
"No. I just wanted to talk to you." I said.  
We excused ourselves and went outside. "Is everything okay?" Dimitri asked as soon as the doors closed behind us.  
"Yes. I'm just a little tired. It's been a long day." I said. "I'm going to go home."  
He smiled and nodded. "I'll come with you."  
I knew what he was after and it wasn't a good idea. Especially not with the mood that I was in. "No, you stay. Celebrate with Liss and Christian. Just keep Abe away from Sydeny."  
"Is there a problem?"  
"No." I lied. "Just make sure that he keeps his distance."  
He nodded and reached up to touch my face. I turned in to his palm and rested my face there for a moment. "Roza, is everything all right?"  
"Everything's fine. I'm just tired. You stay for a while. I'll be fine."  
"I'll walk you home."  
"And have to come all the way back? I'm fine. I'm a big girl, I'm training again. I can look after myself. And it's not like I'm leaving Court so I'm not likely to run in to any strigoi." I said and pressed my lips against his breifly. "I'll see you later."  
He nodded and then went back inside.  
I wrapped my arms around myself and started walking home. I was about halfway there and then... nothing. There was a pain at the back of my head and then darkness.


	10. Chapter 10

Rose POV

I woke up on a bed in what appeared to be a hotel room, my head throbbing. Waking up with a major headache was starting to become a habit. I lifted the covers, relieved to see that I was still in my party dress. The only things that was missing was my shoes, but I could see them standing next to each other by the door.  
Someone had brought me here and made sure that I was comfortable, but I had no idea why. I got out of bed, glad that the cream room only spun a little as I stood up and tried to get my bearings. The room had no windows and two doors, both of which were locked. The walls were cream, as was the bed, the furniture a deep mahogany. There was a bag on the dresser, one that I recognised. It was the duffle bag that usually held my gym clothes, pads, wraps and water bottle, but it had my things from the apartment in it. My toothbrush and toothpaste, my hairbrush, clothes, shoes and underwear.  
I stared it and my heart sunk. When Dimitri noticed that my things were missing and so was I, he'd think that I'd left him. I made my way over to the door on my left and tried it, but it was locked. As was the other one.  
Normally, I would have tried to break it down but with the dizziness, I knew that it would be a waste of time. I sat back on the edge of the bed, desperately trying to work out what the hell was going on.

I heard the door being unlocked but someone came in before I had the chance to move. It was a tall someone, with pale skin and blood red eyes. He looked familiar, though I couldn't quite remember where I'd seen him before. He regarded me for a moment before smiling, his fangs protruding through his lips.  
"It's nice to see you again, Rosemarie." He said and bowed a little. "Do you remember me?"  
I shook my head no and he frowned.  
"My name is Nathan. It's a pleasure to have you here." He smiled again as if he really were pleased. "You're such a fierce fighter, Rosemarie Mazur. The poison should have taken care of you but I suppose that was my fault. A woman of your talent is not one to be underestimated."  
"You're the one that poisoned me?"  
"Of course, though not directly. Eric delivered the poison to you on my behalf. I must say though, I'm glad that he made a mistake."  
"You are?"  
"Yes. You see, he didn't give you the full dose of the poison. If he had, you would be dead and wouldn't be here with me now. It's funny how things work out in the end, Rosemarie Mazur."  
"My name is Rose Hathaway."  
"Children should take their father's name."  
"Well, he wasn't around much." I said, wondering why my name mattered so much.  
"Come," he said, holding his hand out to me. "Let's eat, shall we?"  
"Excuse me?"  
"Of course, I didn't mean myself. You must be starving though. I've had my chefs prepare something just for you." He said.  
I looked at his hand as if it were a snake about to strike and didn't take it. "I'm fine, really."  
"You will eat, Rosie." He said, coming towards me and gripping the top of my arm.  
He dragged me out of the room and down the corridor, in to a big room with a small table. It had a white table cloth over it, with a single rose in a crystal vase. There were two places set with china plates and two champagne flutes, even though I knew that strigoi couldn't eat or drink regular food. They survived off of the blood of morois, humans and dhampirs.  
"Rosie, I don't remember telling you that red was my favourite colour." He said as he sat me down on a chair, unfolded a napkin and placed it on my lap.  
"You didn't. I was wearing it to a party."  
"And here I thought that this was your way of flirting with me." He smiled as he took his own seat.  
"In your dreams, evil dead."  
He chuckled low in his throat, leaned forward and ran his hand over my hair. "Oh, Rosie. We're going to have so much fun together.  
"My name isn't Rosie."  
"It is now. I prefer it to Rosemarie or Rose and hearing Belikov call you Roza had always offended my ears."  
"You know Dimitri?"  
"I knew him, when he was at his best. I never liked that he called you Roza."  
"That's funny. I always did."  
"That's because you women are fickle. A man pays you the slightest bit of attention and gives you a nickname and you end up as putty in their hands. I have no idea why you are called the fairer sex."  
"Let me guess, you don't know why they call you evil either."  
He held his hand up and clicked the fingers of his other hand. Two humans came out of a door, one carrying a dish and the other a bottle of what appeared to be champagne. Pasta was served on to my plate and my glass was filled, the golden liquid bubbling in the glass. Nathan nodded and they disappeared back through the door. "Oh, no. I'm well aware of why they call us that. Of course, some of us have actually earned their reputation." He contiued with a smug smile as if the humans hadn't interrupted us.  
"I've earned mine."  
"Ah, yes. The great Rosemarie Hathaway, defender of Moroi, killer of strigoi." He said sarcasticly. "It's such a shame that the poison made you too weak to defend yourself."  
"You know, I'm curious about something." I said, flicking my hair over my shoulder.  
"And what might that be, my dear Rosie?"  
"Why did you bring me here?"  
"Are you not enjoying my company, Rosie?" He asked.  
I tried to bite back my grimace. Every time he called me 'Rosie' I cringed internally. "Not particularly, I just don't understand why I'm here. Most strigoi would have killed me or turned me, not complimented my dress and sat there watching me eat as if we're on some sort of date."  
"You're here for two reasons, Rosie. The first is that I finally get you all to myself. The second, my sweet Rosie, is to lure your father to us."  
"My father?"  
"Yes. Ibrahim Mazur, Abe, the great Zmey. It was no coincidence that you were given the poison of the Amphisbaena – the two headed serpent. It was supposed to represent the two sides of his life but he might not have gotten that message. Eat, please." He said, waiting for me to pick my fork up and take a bite of the salmon before he continued. "There are two sides to the great Zmey. There is the mafia man, the man whose name is enough to inflict fear on those that hear it. And then, there is a different side of him. Abe Mazur, family man. I know that he never married your mother but he loves her. It's obvious in the way that he looks at her. I thought about taking her but that wouldn't have caused the same kind of pain that taking you has."  
"Why bother at all? You know who he is, you know what he's capable." I said, putting my fork down to look at him.  
"Oh, Rosie. I know more about your father than you do. In my previous life I was one of his people. I was the one that he turned to when he needed something taking care of. If there was a problem, I solved it. If he needed someone scaring or someone taking care of, I was the one that he called upon. He managed to screw me over though, moments before I was awakened. Strigoi were attacking and he left us behind, left us to solve the problems that he'd brought upon himself. I was like you, a budding dhampir with a bright future ahead of me but that was taken from me. Don't be too sad though, I was given so much more in return. Eternal youth, strength beyond anything I'd ever known, money, women... I had it all. And then Belikov came. I'd earned myself the position of second in command, only for it to be taken away by your precious Belikov. Then he brought you along, and I swaer, I was in love. My heart doesn't beat, Rosie, but if it did it would beat for you."  
"Does that line actually work for you?"  
"I don't know, I've never used it before. That smart mouth of yours is what attracted me to you in the first place. To hear you fighting against him when all the others succumbed so easily, was a breath of fresh air. If it hadn't have been for Belikov, I would have claimed you then. He wanted to give you a choice. He wanted you to join him by choice. Belikov may think that he was incapable of love when he was awakened but he's wrong. He still loved you. I wanted you in every way that I could possibly have you, but he forbade it. I offered to break your spirit until you begged on your hands and knees to be awakened. Belikov beat me to a pulp for even suggesting it. He loved you all along, Rosie. It's a shame that you'll never get the chance to tell him. I can see why he chose you to love though, to be the one that he awakened." He said as he tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. "You're so very special."  
"Thanks." I said, wondering where he was going with this.  
"To find out that you were not only Belikov's lover but also the daughter of the man that betrayed me... It was as if all of my birthdays had come at once. Three of my main desires are acheivable now."  
"Oh? What might those be?" I asked, trying to sound braver than I felt.  
"I get to kill Mazur, break Dimitri and keep you for myself."  
"Why, why would you want to do that?  
"Because they deserve it."  
"They don't know where I am."  
"No, but they will. I'll be sending a very important package to your father. He'll come to save you and I'll kill him."  
"He won't come."  
"You are the blood of his blood. He'll come for you. His heart will break when he sees what his daughter has become. He'll offer anything to have you returned safely. I'll offer him a trade; his life for yours. He'll take it, believing that you will be safe. Of course, when he's gone I'll keep you as my personal blood whore. I'll have you any which way I please, whenever I please." He reached over the table and stroked my hair and smiled. "Depending on how well you please me, I may even give you the ultimate gift."  
"You can take your gift and shove it up your- Ah!" I screamed out when he yanked my hair sharply.  
"Now, now, Rose. That's no way to please me, is it?" He let go of my hair, raised his hand and knocked the table to the side. The glasses and plates fell to the floor and smashed and there was nothing else between Nathan and I. He fisted my hair again, pulling me out of my chair and throwing me to the ground. "On your knees, Rose. Show me what a good blood whore you are.  
I looked up at him and tried to fight the nausea that rolled through my body as he started to unbutton his pants. "In your dreams." I muttered just before I vomited all over his shoes.  
"Oh, Rosie." He tutted as he wiped my vomit off of his shoes and onto my dress. "You don't know who I am or what I can do. Let me educate you." He teased and then proceeded to rattle off information about everyone that I loved. Dimitri and his family, Janine, Abe, Liss and Christian, Adrian. He knew everything about them; their birthdays, their addresses, where Dimitri's family worked. He knew it all. "I can have them killed with one single call, Rosie. It would be wise if you didn't antagonise me."  
"What do you want?" I said, hearing the sound of defeat in my own voice.  
"Come here Rosie. Show me how much you want them to stay alive." He held his hand out to me and I took it, knowing that I hand no other choice. If I didn't, then they'd all die. My family and Dimitri's. Nathan pulled me towards him and then spun me around so my back was pressed against his chest. I could feel his excitement pressing in to me and fought a shudder as I tried my best to ignore it. "Isn't it devastating?"  
"Which part exactly?"  
"That such a stubborn creature, so desperate to control her own future, her destiny, can have her spirit crushed so easily?" He ran his finger down my cheek and smiled. "How does it feel to completely powerless, Rosie? Please, don't waste your energy trying to tell me that you're not. By the time that anyone finds you, you'll have been drunk from to the point of almost being drained, you'll have been violated. You'll be broken, Rosie."  
A tear slipped down my cheek and he licked it off, his tongue rough against my skin. I whimpered and tried to get away but his iron grip held me in place. He leaned in close, close enough for his fangs to graze the skin of my neck and then I closed my eyes as the euphoria of his bite washed over me.

I had no idea how much time had passed when I woke up. I was sore all over and I could feel something running down my neck. I reach up to touch it gingerly, my finger tips coming away covered in bright red blood. I looked down at myself and my heart almost stopped beating. My red dress was completely torn open at the front, leaving me exposed. My bra was still there but my underwear was gone. There were bruises forming on my thighs, bruises that looked like fingers. Tears rolled down my face as I looked at myself, knowing exactly what had happened and being grateful that I hadn't been awake to experience it.  
There was a light knock on the door and then it opened. A young girl walked in, holding a bowl and a something white. I swiped my tears away with the back of my hand and did my best to cover myself up.  
The girl came further in to the room and I saw that she was older than I'd first thought. She was probably about the same age as me. Her head was shaved on one side and her hair was dyed colourfully, like the rainbow. Reds, blues, greens and pinks flowed around her like the mane of unicorns that little girls fantasised about. She looked at me briefly when she came in and I could see bite marks on her neck. She looked away from my broken body and put a bowl down on the floor near me.  
"Master says that you should clean yourself up." She said, her voice wavering as if she'd been crying.  
"You can tell your master that I have no interest in doing anything that that son of a bitch says." I snapped. She flinched and I felt guilty. It wasn't her fault, not really, but I couldn't help but blame her. She was human and she was letting them feed from her. It was something that humans did; they enjoyed the bite and the rush of endorphins that came with it. They hoped that if they pleased their strigoi that they'd be awakened, though many of them didn't live that long. "I'm sorry. You don't have to tell him that."  
She nodded but didn't say anything. She just stood by the door, waiting for me to clean myself. I stood up slowly, and went over to the table where she'd placed the bowl and did my best to wipe away the dirt and the shame. I wiped my face with the warm flannel but winced as I touched it to my lip. I assumed that it was split but I had no mirror in the room to check. I wiped my arms and chest down, then moved on the legs. I was wiping my thighs when I noticed that the flannel was coming away pink. I rinsed it out and wiped again. I was bleeding. The son of a bitch had made me bleed. I pushed the tears and nausea down, trying to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Once I'd finished she gave me a small smile and handed me the white thing that she'd walked in with. I unfolded it and something fell to the ground. It was a pair of socks that had been folded inside a dress. I laughed, not because it was funny but because it was absurd. I had no underwear, no jacket. Just a dress and pair of socks. It could have been worse though, I could have been holed up in a cave rather than a fancy hotel.  
I took off my shredded clothes and quickly pulled the dress over my head. Rainbow girl held her hand out for the torn dress so I handed it to her. She nodded and picked the bowl up, leaving the room and locking the door behind her.  
The dress wasn't so bad, at least as far as dresses went. It was something that Liss would have worn; knee length and white. I couldn't help but think that I probably looked like some sort of sacrificial virgin. I still had scars on my arm from the strigoi attack back at Court but otherwise, I looked resonably okay. That is if I didn't pay attention to the split lip or the welt on my cheek. I pressed my hand to it gingerly, glad to find that it was more of a surface wound than anything else.  
I curled up on the bed, wishing that if I said 'there's no place like home' enough time, I'd open my eyes and find myself back at Court, in bed with Dimitri and this would have been a terrible nightmare. I knew I wouldn't but I'd been told once that hope is a wonderful thing, so I held on to it for dear life.

Apparently, Nathan had been going for the sacrificial virgin look because when he came to me again, his eyes glazed over with lust. His excitement was evident as he came closer to me. I stood my ground and held my head high, never one to show fear.  
"How are you feeling today, Rosie?"  
"I'm just peachy." I said with a sweet smile.  
"I'm glad to hear it. I enjoyed our time together last night so much that I thought I should visit you again." He said and sat down on my bed, patting the spot next to him.  
"I'd rather stand."  
His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, yanking me down so that I sat next to him. "You will learn to do as you are told, Rosie. One way or another."  
I wanted to tell him that that was highly unlikely. The teachers at Vlad's had been trying that for years and it hadn't taken, so I doubted that he'd have much luck. I didn't though, I bit my tongue and waited for him to continue.  
"I have something that I need you to do for me, Rosie." He said in what was supposed to be a sweet voice. Instead, it made my skin crawl. "I need you to be a good girl and play nicely. Charles is going to be joining us in a moment and he'll prepare that very important package for your father."  
"What are you going to do? Cut my fingers off and send them back to him?"  
"Of course, not. That would be a waste of perfectly good fingers and no where as painful as what I intend to do. He needs to see what exactly what I'm doing to you, exactly what I intend to do for the rest of your life if he refuses to turn himself in."  
The door opened and a human came in, Charlie I assumed. He was of average height and average looks, with a long, thin nose and grey eyes. He was carrying a video camera and a tripod, which he set up at the end of the bed. My heart started to race and dread flooded my body.  
"You see, Rosie," Nathan continued as if nobody else had come in, "I need him to see what will become of you. I need him to feel so terrible that he'll come to your rescue."  
"You're insane."  
"I prefer evil genious. It is quite ingenious though, to cause so much emotional pain to a man before causing him physical pain. It makes it so much more... intense."  
He raked his nails down my cheeks, drawing blood. and making me scream. "Yes, Rosie. Scream for me."


	11. Chapter 11

**Note -**

Okay, so this story took a turn that I wasn't expecting but it's there now so I'm just going to roll with it. I will probably have to change the rating because it got way darker than I was expecting.  
I haven't done that yet so this is your warning.

 **Abandon all hope ye who enter here**

Seriously though, this chapter has some pretty dark stuff going on so I strongly advise reader discretion here. Read on at your own risk, otherwise skip to the next chapter or maybe the one after that, and then play catch up. The following chapter is rated M for Majorly Messed Up. Adult themes, language and violence of a sexual nature follow. Seriously, don't read it if it makes you uncomfortable.

* * *

Rose POV

Charles remained at the end of the bed with an impassive look on his face. He regarded the scene before him as if he were a zoologist, filming animals in the wild. It amazed me what humans would do for the promise of eternal life, even though it was usually a lie.  
I clamped my lips together as Nathan's hands roamed my body, desperate not scream. He'd use it to fuel his excitement and to hurt Abe and those were two things that I couldn't allow. I tried to be strong, but as he raked his nails across my skin, I let out a pained whimper. He wrapped his fingers around my throat and stood up, bringing me to my feet in front of him.  
"Scream for them, Rosie. Scream for your father and your lover." Nathan said.  
"Fuck you." I spat.  
He laughed and continued his search of my body. "I can see why Belikov chose you to be his. Such a strong body, supple. You're everything that most women wish that they could be. Sex on legs with an attitude to match. I'll enjoying taking you again, Rosie. And again, and again, and again. You'll be my blood whore and I will be your master. Eventually, you're going to beg me to take you to my bed."  
"I highly doubt that." I said, but stayed still. Just like in training with Dimitri, I was waiting for the opportune moment to put him on his ass. It would take every ounce of energy that I had and I'd still be left with Charles, but I was pretty sure that I could take him. I was still weak from yesterday but I had to do this. I had to get away, make sure that Abe and Dimitri never got the film and get the hell out of here.  
"We shall see." He said and ran his fangs up the side of my neck. "You love the bite, Rosie. All you have to do is ask for it, and I'll give it to."  
I kept my mouth shut and tried my best to ignore him; his voice, his fangs, his hands on my body. He spun me around so that my back was against his chest, so that the camera would catch every expression that ran over my face. I closed my eyes, refusing to let Abe and Dimitri see how terrified I was. My hands were shaking as they hung limply by my sides and nausea rolled through my stomach at the thought of them seeing this. I needed to be strong, I needed to get away.  
Nathan growled as he ripped the dress of my, baring my chest to the camera. It fell to the floor, pooling around my feet and I was left in just my underwear. His long fingers went to the back of my bra and unhooked it and then that joined the tattered dress on the ground. He was too busy ogling my body to really pay attention, so I took adavantage of the moment and decided that it was now or never.  
I threw my head back, connecting it with his nose, knowing that it wouldn't hurt so much as surprise him. I tried a move that usually worked on Dimitri; hooking my foot behind his hand throwing my weight in an attempt to knock him down. It worked and allowed myself a second of triumph before I tried to run. He stood up with his strigoi speed and had me pinned to the bed before I could even take a step. Somehow, in the middle of all of that movement, he'd also been able to get his pants down in the process. He hovered me, completely naked from the waist down and ripped away my underwear. "Oh, Rosie. I've always loved it when you put up a fight." He said and then thrust in to me.  
I screamed at the intense pain and couldn't hold back the tears. "Dimitri, please." I whispered, more to myself than anyone else. "Please help me."  
Nathan growled and forced himself further in to me. "You will not say his name when you are with me, Rosie."  
He didn't like it, so of course, I did it even more. I started screaming, screaming for Dimitri and trying my best to get him off of me. Being so weak and in so much pain, I barely rocked him but it didn't stop me from trying. If Dimitri was going to be forced to watch this, he was going to know that I tried to stop it, that I tried to get out.  
Nathan roared and pulled out of me, raising his fist and ramming it in to my face. he caught my cheekbone and little black and white dots danced across my eyes as I groaned. He moved away from me, knowing that I was too dizzy to move and fetched something from his pants. It was his belt, I saw just before he flipped me over so that I was face down on the bed. I could feel his thighs between my own, cold and firm and then there was nothing but agony as the belt met my flesh. There was a stinging pain and I screamed and begged him to stop. Of course, he didn't. He kept on beating me with what felt like the buckle end of his belt until he'd had enough. He ran his finger down my spine.  
"Oh, Rosie. I'll never get enough of this." He said and then made a popping noise as if he'd just licked his finger clean.  
"Fuck... you." I said through gritted teeth, feeling like I was going to pass out.  
I must have because the next thing I knew, Nathan was forcing himself inside me once more. I screamed and kicked but it was no use. He had my arms pinned behind my back at an awkward angle and I could feel them rubbing through something warm and slick but my mind was too busy trying to block out the pain to really pay too much attention to it. He pulled away from me and rested his hands on either side of my face and turned my head so that I was looking straight at Charles, straight at the camera.  
"Smile for your loved ones, Rosie." He said in an almost sing-song voice. "Zmey, I will make you a trade. Your life for that of your daughter. Surrender yourself and she will be given back to you. Refuse and she will be mine for the rest of her life. I will feed off of her and ravish her body for the rest of her days until she is broken. Only then will I out the little blood whore out of her misery. You've got twenty four hours from the moment that you see this message. There is a number inside the package, call it and you will be given the instructions for your surrender."  
I stared down the camera as best as I could with my face being rammed in to the bed, desperately trying to send a message with my face. A message that said 'don't give yourself up. He's lying', but all I could do was cry. Tears leaked from the corner of my eye, ran across the bridge of my nose and then ran in to my other eye. Nathan lifted me up by my hair and stood me in front of his body, giving whoever would watch the tape a full frontal view of my body. I prayed that it wouldn't be either of them that had to see it, that they'd hand it over to Janene or Liss. Actually, no, I didn't want either of them to see it. I didn't want anyone to see it, but if I had to choose, it would be Alberta. She'd be able to distance herself and she'd know what to do.  
Nathan sunk his fangs in to my neck once again, drinking from me as my vision started to darken around the edges. Before I knew it, I was gone again.

When I woke up, I was face down on the bed again, completely naked but thankfully alone. I tried to get up but I was so sore. Every muscle in my body hurt as if I'd trained for a week straight. I laid as still as I possibly could, trying to minimise the pain but I knew that it was impossible. There was a dull throbbing between my legs and my back hurt just from breathing. Nathan had really done a number on me.  
I heard the door open and close, her feet padding over to me on the soft carpet. I turned my head, praying that it wasn't Nathan. It wasn't. Rainbow girl was back, a bowl of water in her hands and a bag swinging at her elbow. She put them both down on the nightstand and then starting taking things out of the little bag. It was like a first aid kid; disinfectant, antiseptic, bandages. Everything that she'd need to patch me up and prepare me for whatever else Nathan had planned.  
"I've come to clean you for the master." She wouldn't meet my eyes. In fact, she wouldn't look at me at all. She kept her eyes fixed on the floor as she came closer to me.  
"I don't want you to clean me." I said, trying to snap at her but it just came out as exhaustion. I was tired, I was hungry and I was thirsty and I was in pain.  
"I'm afraid that you don't have a choice, Rosie. If you don't let me clean you then I've been ordered to go and fetch the master and he will..." She hesitated. "I'll have to fetch the master."  
I nodded but didn't say anything to her. There wasn't much point. She wasn't a person that I could reason with, she was a person that had been promised immortality in return for her throwing her morals away. She stepped forward and peeled the duvet away, exposing my naked back. She didn't say anything or make any noises of shock so I assumed that she'd seen something similar before. "Is this what he does to all of his captives?" I asked.  
"I've seen worse, Rosie. You should count your blessings." She said and dipped a cloth in to the water and began to wash away the dry blood.  
I winced as the cloth touched my sensitive skin. "Count my blessings?" I asked, more to make sure that I'd heard her correctly and wasn't hallucinating.  
"Yes. The last girl that he did this to died." She said calmly. "You should think yourself lucky that you're still with us."  
Think myself lucky? Ha! I tried to turn my head so that I could glare at her over my shoulder but I couldn't move enough. The truth was, I'd rather be like the other girl. I'd rather be dead than have to live through what that son of a bitch had done to me. I'd rather be dead than have to feel it or remember it. I'd rather be dead than have to think about Dimitri and Abe watching what he'd done.  
When Rainbow Girl had finished, I didn't thank her. Why would I thank her for preparing me for him? She covered me back up, the duvet resting on my bandages, and gathered her things before leaving me alone again. The door locked behind her immediately and I was trapped again.

* * *

It had been days since Nathan had come to visit me, not that I was complaining about it, but it had also been days since I'd eaten anything. The last meal I'd had was the pasta that Nathan's humans had given me, and I'd only managed to have a few forkfulls before it had been launched across the room. As for water, I hadn't had anything since the party. That seemed as if it had been another lifetime ago. A happier time when I was with the people that I loved. I tried to swallow but my throat was as dry as if I'd been left in the desert for a week and eaten nothing but sand. We'd learned about survival at school but I'd forgotten most of it. How long could a person go without food and water? Was it three days for food and three weeks for water? No, that couldn't be right. It had to be only a few days without water before the internal organs started shutting down. I remembered Miss Blockley saying that we'd know when we were about to die because we wouldn't feel it any more – the thirst or the hunger. I had more time yet because I was definitely feeling it.  
The second door in my room had been unlocked at some point, I'd found out on one of my escape attempts. I was able to move with slightly more ease and had tried desperately to find a away out of there. The door handle had turned and the door had opened, revealing a small bathroom. A toilet, a sink and small shower cubicle were in there. Obviously Nathan didn't want me to use a bucket as a toilet, which I was slightly grateful for. The bathroom was stocked with essentials; shampoo and conditioner, even tampons - which was handy seeing as my period was due three days after Liss's party. I didn't know how long ago that had been though so I had no idea of tracking it.  
I'd tried to shower on my own but hadn't been able to take the bandages off of my back and I was sure that I'd cause myself even more injury if I kept trying. Instead, I showered with them on. They fell off in the shower though; they were the ones that stuck like plasters rather than the kind that wrapped around my body. The water stung when it hit my back as if it were acid coming out of the shower head and not warm water. Cold water didn't help much either, though it did soothe some of the pain. When I was finished, I patted myself dry with a towel and then went to my duffle bag that had filled with my things from home. I through it and couldn't decide whether I should be happy or furious.  
Whoever had packed my bag had been thorough. I had everything in there that I'd need for a long stay; jeans, leggings, work out clothes, underwear. They'd even packed my favourite moisturiser. Nathan hadn't been kidding when he said that he'd never let me go. I dressed quickly, pulling on my leggings and a loose T shirt before I laid back down on the bed. I thought of everyone back home, wondering how they were all doing, wishing that I had the bond so that I could check in on Liss and Christian but also glad that I didn't have it. Sooner or later, Liss would have worked out to open her side of the bond so that she could visit me. If she had of done that and come to check on me, she'd been living through the same hell as I was. As much as I didn't want that for myself, I couldn't bare the thought of Liss having to go through it. She was safe, Nathan hadn't even asked about her, and she was with Dimitri and Janene; the two people that I would trust above anyone else to protect her. Christian would be making sure that she keeps her healing charms on and Adrian would be with her to keep her mind busy with stories of his many indiscretions. Liss was safe and if I had anything to do with it, she would stay that way. I knew that there wouldn't be much that I could do from here even if she was in danger, but it made me feel better to think about her being safely guarded and not stuck in this hell hole with me.  
It was funny really. The last thing time I'd spoken to Abe, he'd called me a blood whore and here I was, being fed off of and raped. Sure, blood whores were usually willing participants but the irony wasn't lost on me. Of course, after he receives the package he'd probably feel guilty for saying those things to me but there wasn't much that either of us could do about it now.

I opened my eyes slowly but I coudln't see anything. The lights had been turned off and I didn't feel like playing hunt the light switch. I heard something, the slightest noise from the other side of the room and tensed involuntarily, waiting for an attack.  
"Roza?" I could hear Dimitri's voice but I couldn't see him anywhere. I breathed a sigh of relief even though I didn't know where he was. I couldnt have, I couldn't even see my own hand in front of my face. "Roza?"  
"Dimitri? Is it really you?" Barely able to contain my pure joy. Dimitri was here and he was going to take me home.  
"Yes. I'm here for you, my Roza." He said, his delicious accent making me feel safer already. "Are you okay?"  
"Where are you?" I asked, holding my hands out and hoping that I'd feel him.  
"I'm here for you, Roza. Are you all right?"  
"I'm..." I was about to tell him that I was fine but we would both know that it was a lie. "No."  
"Do you remember what I once said to you, Roza?" He asked.  
"No."  
"You are brave, you are cunning and you are strong."  
"I'm not any of those things, Dimitri."  
"Yes, my beautiful Roza, you are. Be brave, be cunning."  
"I'm locked in a room with no windows and two doors that's kept locked at all times, Dimitri. How brave and cunning can I be?"  
"Enough to find a way out of it." He said on a whisper and I knew that he was gone. I missed the sound of his voice as soon as it was gone. That man had always been a balm for my soul and I needed him, now more than ever.  
To be fair, he hadn't been there at all but I was still heart broken. Dimitri was my one chance of getting out of here. I wasn't usually one to give in but this time was different. There was no out. Even if there was, there were more of them than me. Add to the fact that I was weak from my bloodless and my injuries... I didn't stand a chance without Dimitri. As much as I hate it, I had to hand it to Nathan. He'd planned this extremely well.  
I felt as if I'd only just closed my eyes again when Adrian appeared. He looked so relieved to see me that he charged at me, bringing me against his body as he held on tightly."I didn't think that I've ever see you again." He whispered against my ear.  
"How did you find me?" I asked as I held on to him for dear life.  
"I've been searching for you for a week, little dhampir."  
"A week? Is that all it's been?" I asked and then frowned. "You're not really here, are you?"  
"No. Tell me where you are and I'll come and get you."  
"I don't know. In some sort of hotel. I, I don't know where I am." I said, hot tears running down my face.  
"Tell me everything, Rose." He said as he led me over to the sofa and sat me down. He perched next to me and held my hand.  
"I don't know what happened. I remember being at the party. I remember arguing with Abe and needing to get out of there. I remember walking towards home and then nothing. I woke up in a hotel room."  
"Are you sure?"  
I nodded, even though I wasn't really sure.  
"What did it look like?"  
"Cream. Everything was cream."  
"Was there a sign on the door? Anything that can help me find you?"  
"I can't remember."  
"Then show me." He said, handing the control of the dream over to me.  
I did my best to remember and once again the scenery changed. I was back in the hotel room with it's cream walls and fluffy carpets. The cream sheets on the king size bed. "This is it."  
"I know where you are." He said with a smile and squeezed my hands. "We're coming, little dhampir. We're coming to get you."  
"Adrian, wait. You can't come here."  
"Why not?"  
"It's not safe. You have to keep everyone away from here. My dad, Liss. They can't come here."  
"It'll be alright." He promised and then stood up. "I'll see you soon, little dhampir."  
"Adrian, wait! How's Dimitri?"  
"He thought that you'd left him. Don't worry, I'll tell him what happened."  
"He hasn't seen it then?"  
"Seen what?"  
"There's a, um, there might be a package arriving soon. It's for him and Abe."  
"What kind of package?"  
"One that you can't let them see. Please, Adrian. Don't let them see it."  
"Rose, what..." He wanted to ask me something but had thought better of it. "I'm coming to get you." He said as the hotel room began to fade at the edges.  
"They're waking me up, aren't they?"  
He nodded but gave me an encouraging smile. "You're going to be okay, Rose. I promise."  
I wanted to believe him but as the dream faded away and I woke up, I knew that I absolutely was not going to be okay.


	12. Chapter 12

Dimitri POV.

Roza had been missing for a week and I'd barely slept at all since she'd been gone. We'd searched Court from top to bottom, I'd called Ma and asked if she'd heard from her. I'd spoken to Yeva to see if she could help me, but she'd said that she couldn't. She was uncharacteristically quiet though, which scared me more than anything else. Yeva liked Roza as much as she liked any of her family. She'd called when Roza had been poisoned but now that she was missing, she had nothing to say. Did that mean that she knew why Roza had left me and didn't want to get involved? Or was I supposed to work it out for myself? Yeva was very much like the old Slavic legends of Baba Yaga. An old woman who either helps or hinders those who seek her out. She usually helped me but this time she was hindering.  
I'd spent the last week wondering what I could have done to make her stay. Or at least try. If there was one thing that I knew about Roza, she didn't like people making her do anything. She was a free spirit, desperately trying to control her own life. Still I couldn't help but wonder about the what ifs. What if I'd have gone with Roza when she'd left the party. What if I'd stopped her from arguing with her father... There were so many things that I wished that I'd done, but it was too late for any of it.  
Instead, I'd focused all of my energy on finding her and bringing her home. I couldn't believe that she would just leave us like that, that she'd have walked away from me, from Vasilisa or her duties over an argument with her father. She had though. She'd left without a word, without a note. I'd gone home looking for her but she wasn't there. Neither was her duffle bag, her toothbrush or her clothes. She'd completely wiped the place out; all that was left was her pyjamas on the end of the bed. She'd left me and there was nothing that I could do about it.  
I looked over at the clock and saw that it was almost three in the morning, though for the rest of the world it was three in the afternoon. Aside from the guardians on duty, the rest of Court was asleep but sleep evaded me completely. I'd lost my Roza and nothing else seemed to matter in comparison.  
A little while later, there was a pounding on my door. I stood up from the couch and went to it, only to be stopped in my tracks by a bellowing voice.  
"Belikov! Belikov, opened the damned the door." Adrian Ivashkov's voice called through the door.  
I went over and opened it. "What do you want?"  
"I've found her." He said, though he didn't look too happy about it.  
"Where is she?" I asked.  
"You're going to want to sit down for this one, Belikov." He said, walking past me. He went straight in to the kitchen, to the fridge and pulled out one of Roza's beers.  
"Those are Roza's." I said through gritted teeth.  
"Trust me, she won't mind." He said and then sat down at the breakfast bar. "I found her."  
"Where is she?"  
"There's more to it than that." He said, taking another swig of beer. "I've been trying to dream walk with her ever since she went missing but I've never been able to find her. Tonight I did."  
"And?"  
"She didn't leave you, Dimitri." He said, his eyes meeting mine. "She was taken."  
My heart started to beat fast in my chest and I clenched my fists. "By whom?"  
"That I don't know." He said, running a hand through his messy hair. "She remembers being at the party and arguing with Abe. She remembers leaving and heading home and that's it. The next thing she knew was waking up in a hotel room."  
"A hotel? Which one?"  
"I got her to show it to me and I'm pretty sure that she's in Vegas."  
"What would she be doing in Vegas?"  
"I have no idea. I've narrowed it down to two different hotels. I don't..."  
I was vaguely aware that he was still speaking to me but I wasn't listening. My Roza had been taken from me. The only people that would be able to do something like was a guardian or a Moroi. Humans didn't know that we existed and those that did wouldn't know where to find us unless they were working with strigoi, and strigoi would never have been able to cross the wards. Someone had taken her, someone that we trusted. Someone that she trusted.  
Who would want to take her from me and why hadn't she found a way out? Why hadn't she called? There were too many questions that I needed answers to and Roza was the only one that could answer them for me.  
"Are you listening?" Adrian asked, clicking his fingers in front of my face.  
"No." I said honestly. "We have to go and get her."  
"Yes but I need you to listen to me for a minute." He said. "There's something else going on here. Rose said that there's a package coming for you and Abe."  
"What kind of package?"  
"I don't know, but it's something that she doesn't want either of you to see." Adrian said. I could feel the worry radiating out of him.  
"Is she all right?"  
"I don't know. I gave her control of the dream but she didn't change. She was wearing the red dress from the party. She looked exactly the same. It was her aura though. She has dark colours in her aura any way from the darkness that came through the bond but it was something more. Its all red, black and green."  
"What does that mean?"  
"Anger, pure, red mist kind of anger. Hatred. She's been touch by evil. I don't know, Belikov. There's something seriously wrong with her." He said, his eyes watering as he spoke.  
"You still love her." It wasn't a question and I didn't particularly want an answer but he nodded.  
"Rose isn't the kind of person that you just move on from."  
"No. She isn't." I said quietly and then went to pack a pack.  
I pulled out my own duffle bag that was similar to Roza's and started to throw things inside; clothes, toiletries, various weapons and one of my favourite Western novels. Adrian and I would need to use Court's private jet to go to Vegas and I'd need to take my mind off of whatever was happening with my Roza.  
For someone to have taken her from Court, it had to be some sort of political agenda. To prove that the Queen's guardian wasn't capable or to take Roza out of the way for a bigger attack. I made a mental note to call down to Alberta before we left, zipped up the bag and grabbed my duster off the back of the door.  
"Let's go." I said to Adrian.

We went to Vasilisa and Christian first, telling them that we thought we knew where Roza was and that we were going to go and bring her home but we needed use of Court's private jet. Vasilisa almost broke down in tears. She'd missed Roza and made herself sick with worry. Adrian and I had decided, before we knocked on their door, that we wouldn't tell them that Roza had been taken. It would only make her feel worse.  
"I'm coming with you." Christian said and stood up.  
"That's not a good idea." I said calmly. "You are a royal Moroi and more importantly, engaged to the Queen. You would present is with a different set of problems that would interfere with our task."  
"You're kidding right?" He asked. He knew that we weren't and frowned. "You're my guardian. You have to take me with you."  
"I have to keep you safe and the safest place for you at this moment in time is here at Court, where you will be surrounded by guardians at all times." I said, quickly losing my patience.  
He looked over to his fiancée and smiled. "And if the Queen were to order you to take me with you, would that change anything at all?" He asked.  
Unfortunately, it did. If the Queen asked me to take him with me, I couldn't refuse. My face must have said as much because Christian smiled triumphantly.  
"Liss, tell him." Christian said.  
Vasilisa put on her 'Queen face', the one that she used when she was on duty and nodded. "Guardian Belikov, take Lord Ozera with you on your trip."  
"Yes, Your Majesty." I said, holding back my sigh.  
"Dimitri, please." Vasilisa said, her calm cracking. "Please bring her home."  
"I'll do my best." I said and then turned to Christian. "We leave in ten minutes. Be ready or we'll leave without you."  
He scurried off in to the bedroom and came out exactly six minutes later with a small bag. "Ready." He said and kissed Vasilisa quickly. "We'll bring her home, Liss. I promise."

As we were walking down the corridor to leave, there was a small box outside Abe and Janene's room. Adrian looked at it and then looked over to me. Was this the package that Roza hadn't wanted me to see? By the look on Adrian's face, I assumed that it was.  
He bent down and picked it up, frowning at the label. "It's addressed to both of you. Ibrahim Mazur and Dimitri Belikov."  
"Is that the package?"  
"It must be, right? Why else would it be for both of you?" Adrian asked with a frown.  
Christian looked back and forth between the two of us with a frown. "Why do I get the feeling that I'm missing something?"  
We ignored him and continued talking between ourselves. "Why wouldn't she want me to see it?"  
"I don't know. Should we give it to Abe?"  
"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Christian asked.  
"Rose didn't leave." Adrian said.  
"Of course she did. She packer her stuff and she left in the middle of the party."  
"No, she didn't. She was going home and someone took her." Adrian said, still holding the package in his hands.  
I stared at it but it didn't look particularly ominous. It was an ordinary package; brown paper with a small white label on it. It had been hand delivered, there was no post mark on it or the Court's seal to say that it was safe. Someone had come up to the Queen's floor, someone that the guardians wouldn't think twice about. Someone that was trusted.  
I took the package out of Adrian's hands and turned around, going straight to my apartment. I unlocked the door and went inside, dropping my bag on the floor and going to sit on the sofa. Adrian and Christian followed, Adrian sitting beside me and Christian taking the armchair.  
"She doesn't want you to open it." Adrian said quietly, though I could see that he was just as curious as I was.  
"It might help us get her back." I said but didn't make a move to open it. I stared at it, trying to decide what the right thing to do was. It had to be something bad if Roza didn't want me to see it, but what could be so bad?  
I was still deliberating it when Christian reached forward and took the box off the table. He ripped the paper off and opened the box, putting it down in front of me.  
"There. Now she can't be mad because technically, you didn't open it." He said triumphantly.  
I nodded and looked inside. There was a thin CD case and a folded piece of paper but nothing else. I brought them out and laid them on the table in front of me. The CD was actually a DVD, the words 'PLAY ME' written on the front in marker pen. Christian stood up and turned the television on, slipping the DVD in to the player.  
We all focused on the screen when an image of Roza and a man sitting on a bed appeared. Roza was wearing a white dress, something she'd never wear by choice, her hands clasped together in her lap. She kept her face turned away from the camera but there was something wrong with the way that she was sitting. All of her muscles were tense, her spine was rigid. I couldn't see the man's face but there was something familiar about his hair, a distant memory that I couldn't quite reach.  
"You see, Rosie." The man said. "I need him to see what will become of you. I need him to feel so terrible that he'll come to your rescue."  
"You're insane." Roza said, her voice quivering slightly. She was afraid and that made my blood boil.  
"I prefer evil genius." He said. "It is quite ingenious though, to cause so much emotional pain to a man before causing him physical pain. It makes it so much more...intense." He struck out, raking his nails down Roza's face. She screamed and my heart missed a beat. "Yes, Rose. Scream for me."  
He clamped his hand around her throat, standing up and bringing her with him. Her back was to the camera but I could see him clearly. He stood roughly a foot taller than Roza and I recognised him instantly.  
I'd known him when I'd been turned. His name was Nathan and he'd been on Galina's estate when I had. He'd shown an interest in Roza but I'd never allowed him near her. Not because I loved her but because she was mine. She was my pet to do with as I pleased. And now, she was with another strigoi that felt exactly the same way. I clenched my fists as I watched them, desperately trying to remain calm.  
"Scream for them, Rosie. Scream for your father and your lover." Nathan said, his eyes sparkling as he looked right at me.  
"Fuck you." She said with such venom in her voice that I had hope for just a second.  
He was doing something to Roza but I couldn't see because her body was blocking my view. "I can see why Belikov chose you to be his. Such a strong body, supple. You're everything that most women wish that they could be. Sex on legs with an attitude to match. I'll enjoy taking you again, Rosie." He said, raising an eyebrow at the camera.  
Nausea rolled through my stomach. He'd said 'again', which meant that he'd already taken her at least once. My poor, Roza. "Turn it off." I growled but no one moved. I turned away from the images in front of me and saw that Christian was crying as his eyes were focused on the screen. Fat tears rolled down his pale cheeks as he watched Roza being violated. I looked over to Adrian but he wasn't watching. His eyes were fixed on the floor, his arms were wrapped around himself and he was rocking back and forth slightly. His lips were moving but no sound was coming.  
I took a deep breath and turned back to the screen, knowing that I needed to see exactly what was happening to my Roza.  
Nathan had continued speaking but I hadn't been listening but Roza's voice called out to me. "I highly doubt that." She said.  
"We shall see. You love the bite, Rosie." He said as he trailed his fangs up the side of neck. He'd moved her hair out of the way and I could see fangs marks there already. He'd bitten her before. "All you have to do is ask for it and I'll give it to you."  
He spun her around quickly so that she was facing the camera and my heart dropped to my stomach. My Roza, my beautiful Roza, looked awful. She had a split lip and dark circles around her eyes; whether they were bruises or just from a lack of sleep, I didn't know. She closed her eyes as if she were trying to protect me from seeing her in pain or so scared but it was too late. I'd known her for so long that it was as if her feelings were my own. I know what every sound meant, every movement. She was terrified but she was trying to be brave. For me. Her hands were shaking at her sides but she made no attempt to move.  
"Why isn't she doing anything?" Christian asked. "Why isn't she fighting him?"  
"She can't." Adrian said quietly. "She tried, look at her. She tried and she failed and she's lost faith in herself. She's broken."  
There was a growl and then Roza's dressed was ripped away from her, leaving in nothing but her underwear. It was the bra that she'd had on under her red dress for the party but the panties were different. What once had been black lace to match the bra were now plain white cotton, as if he were trying to make her look as innocent as possible. The dress fell to the floor and then his hands went to her back, her bra joining the dress on the floor. I closed my eyes momentarily and then Christian gasped. I looked back up and saw that Roza had decided to fight. Nathan had his hands clutching his nose and then she used one of her signature moves on him. It was the move that she always used on me when I was least expecting it, one that brought me to the ground every single time. He fell to the ground and I watched as Roza's muscles tensed, ready to run. She didn't get the chance though. Before she'd taken a step, he had her pinned to the bed. It was a blur but somehow he'd managed to stand up, take him pants down and pin her in less than a second. He ripped her panties away and smiled down at her with a predatory look in his eyes.  
"Oh, Rosie." He said. "I've always loved it when you put up a fight."  
Roza screamed when he thrust himself in to her, an agonised scream that tore me apart. "Dimtri, please." She whispered. "Please help me."  
Her pleas ripped my soul apart as I broke down. Nathan was going to die, slowly and painfully for the things that he'd done to my Roza.  
Nathan growled and forced himself in to her with more force. "You will not say his name when you are with me, Rosie."  
Of course, that made Roza call out for me even more. Every time was like a slice to my heart. She bucked her hips, trying desperately to get out from uner him, to get away. She was too weak though, probably from blood loss. Nathan roared and withdrew from her and left her on the bed whilst he retrieved his belt from his pants.  
My stomach rolled as I followed his gaze. He was going to beat her with his belt and there was nothing that I could do to stop him. He flipped her over so that she was face down, wrapped the belt around his hand twice and then brought it down on her back, the metal buckle acting like a blade and slicing her beautiful skin open.  
Roza screamed and begged for him to stop but he didn't. He hit her and hit her, again and again until her back was covered with her own blood. Her dropped the belt to the ground and ran his finger through the blood, popping it in his mouth and sucking it clean. He told Roza that he'd never get enough of 'this' but I couldn't be sure if he meant of her, hurting her or her blood. Knowing him, it was all of the above.  
"Fuck... you." Roza said through gritted teeth moments before she passed out.  
"Oh my God." Christian said quietly, unable to believe what he was seeing.  
Sadly, I could believe it. I'd known Nathan do this to women before, though most of them usually died of shock. I needed to get to her before he could hurt her any more or break her spirit so much that she ended up like the others. At the rate he was going it wouldn't take long.  
He thrust himself back in to Roza's unconcious body, pinning her arms behind her back. She woke up shortly after and screamed, attempting to kick him but her feet wouldn't reach him. He reached his climax quickly and pulled out, leaning down so that his chest laid in top of her back.  
He turned her head so that she was facing the camera, her tears rolling down and wetting the bed beneath her. "Smile for your loved ones Rosie." He said and then turned to face the camera.  
"Zmey, I will make you a trade. Your life for that of your daughter. Surrender yourself and she will be given back to you. Refuse and she will be mine for the rest of her life. I will feed off of her and ravish her body for the rest of days until she is broken. Only then will I put the little blood whore out of her misery. You've got twenty four hours from the moment that you see this messgae. There is a number inside the package, call it and tou will be given the instructions for your surrender."  
I wasn't looking at Nathan's face but at Roza's. She was staring down the camera as if she was trying to tell me something but I had no idea what it was. Nathan's hand reached down, grabbing a handful of Roza's hair and forced her to stand up. She was facing the camera so that I could see all of her body and then he sunk his fangs in to her neck, just above her collar bone. Her eyes rolled back in her head and then she was gone, limply resting against him. He wrapped an arm underneath her breasts, keeping her body upright as he drank from her.  
He was taking too much from her and she was starting to go pale but then he quickly stopped, letting go of her so that she fell to the floor at his feet.  
"Twenty four hours, Mazur." He said and then the screen went black.?  
I stared at the screen, trying desperately to calm myself. There was a white-hot anger coursing through my veins and all I wanted to do was kill the monster that hurt my Roza without a moments hesitation. I needed to remain calm, to be strong for Roza, but it was so hard to do.  
The three of us sat in silence for a while, processing what we'd just witnessed. Christian was still crying, sniffing loudly as he tried to control himself. He and Roza hadn't liked each other at first but over the years they'd formed a close relationship. They were like siblings that fought each other like cat and dog but would protect each other fiercely.  
Adrian was still rocking himself, his eyes filled with tears though none actually fell. He was muttering something to himself but I couldn't make it out. He looked at me suddenly, his eyes filled with pain. He loved her, as we all did. "She never told me." He said quietly. "I was with her last night and she never told me. She didn't want us to see it and now we've seen it. She didn't tell me, Dimitri."  
"I know." I said, resting my hand lightly on his shoulder. She wouldn't have told him. She'd have wanted to protect us all from the horrors that she'd faced. "We'll find her, Adrian."  
"What did he do?" Christian asked. "What could Abe have done that was bad that Rose had to go through that?"  
"I don't know." I said, trying not to choke on the lump in my throat. I didn't know why Nathan would want to torture Roza just to hurt Abe, but I was going to find out.

I hammered on Abe's door until he answered. He was in his pyjamas, his hair messy and his eyes tired.  
"What's so important, Belikov?" he asked, clearly annoyed.  
"Come with me." I said, leaving little room for argument.  
"Can this wait until the morning?"  
"No. You need to come with me now." I said and grabbed his shoulder, bunching his pyjama shirt in my hand and marching down the corridor in to my own room. "Sit down." I said as I threw him on to the sofa.  
Some of the guardians had seen or heard to commotion and followed us. They stood in the doorway with curiosity. "Get out." I shouted and they quickly left.  
"What is the meaning of this?" Abe asked, looking from Adrian to Christian. "Is it Rose? Is she all right?"  
"No." I said. "She is definitely not all right." I pressed play on the DVD player and went in to the kitchen with Christian and Adrian, leaving him to watch it alone. I didn't need to see it again, it was burned in to my brain for ever.  
"Do you have a plan?" Christian asked.  
"Other than going to find her and bringing her home, no." I said honestly. I had a plan for Nathan of course, countless ways to make him suffer for the things that he'd done to my Roza.  
We sat in silence for a while, watching Adrian pour himself glass after glass of whiskey. I probably should have stopped him but I didn't have the heart. He'd just witnessed something horrible. If I didn't have to think of a strategy, I'd probably have joined him. He had plenty of time to sober up on the plane, so I didn't stop him.  
We heard a pained cry coming from the living room and I started to feel guilty. I shouldn't have made Abe watch it, but by all accounts it was his fault that Roza was suffering. I waited until I heard him crying and then went in to the living room. The screen was black and Abe was crying, his head in his hands.  
"You know him?" I asked.  
He nodded. "It's Nathan Francis. He used to work for me."


	13. Chapter 13

Dimitri POV

"He used to work for you?" I asked, somehow still surprised.  
Abe nodded and looked up at me, his eyes filled with pain and something else that I couldn't quite place. "He was my second in command. He did everything that I asked of him."  
"Then why is he doing this to her?"  
"I don't know." He said, fresh tears running down his lined face.  
"He must have a pretty good reason if he's doing that to your daughter." I snapped.  
"This is all my fault. She must have told him. They're doing this to punish me." Abe muttered.  
"Told him what?" I asked.  
"The night that she left, I, we argued."  
"About what?"  
"Sydney Sage. She's in debt to me but Rose thought that I should let her out of it. Because she'd saved her life." Abe swiped away the tears as they fell. "I said that it was between me and Sage. Rose said that I'd ignored her for seventeen years. She said that when she had children of her own she'd make sure that she did a better job than I did with her."  
"That's why she left?"  
Abe shook his head. "I called her a blood whore. I said that you two couldn't have children of your own and you weren't going to stand by as she slept with morois."  
I clenched my fists and tried to keep myself from hitting him. "You called her a blood whore?"  
Abe nodded, his eyes fixed to the ground. I could tell that he was ashamed of himself and watching Nathan drinking from her must have made him feel even worse, but I didn't care. He deserved it.  
"I was just so angry. I didn't mean..."  
I knew what he was trying to say to me. He hadn't meant for any of this to happen. He'd called her a blood whore and know for all intents and purposes, she was one. She was being fed off and taken against her will, just like so many blood whores are.  
I shook my head and just looked at the man in front of me. Abe seemed to have aged twenty years in the last hour. He'd curled in to himself as if he were trying to shut the world out. He wasn't consumed with rage like I was, he just looked as if he'd been defeated. There was something else mixed in with the pain but I didn't have the time to think about it right now. I needed to get to Roza and bring her home where she'd be safe. I turned away from him and went back to Christian and Adrian.  
"What did he say?" Christian asked.  
I told them and they looked at me in surprise. "What?"  
"That piece of shit worked for Abe?" Christian asked.  
"Why are you so surprised?" Adrian asked between drinks. "He's the great Zmey, remember. He probably taught the guy everything that he knows."  
Adrian had a point. Abe had earned himself a reputation over the years, though I didn't know gthe specifics. He was basically a mobster who took care of people's problems, no matter how big or small. People were afraid of him but they also respected him. He was a no-nonsense kind of man that didn't take on a job unless he knew he could get it done. Apparently Nathan had been one of the men that helped him to get those jobs done.  
It still didn't explain how he'd ended up at Galena's though. I supposed that it didn't realy matter. Knowing that he could punish both Abe and I at the same time was probably a dream come true to him. Knowing that I would be able to tear him apart bit by bit before ending him had become mine. I silently vowed that I wouldn't rest until he was dead.  
"Did he really say that she'd end up as a blood whore?"  
I nodded. "We should go. We've already wasted too much time." I said and headed over to the door.  
Christian and Aidan followed behind me, Adrian swaying slightly.  
"Wait." Christian said before heading back in to the living room. He came back with the piece of paper that had been in the package. "They'll be waiting for a call."  
I nodded and we left, heading straight to the air strip on the other side of Court.

Once we were on the plane and headed to Las Vegas, I took out my phone and dialled the number on the paper.  
"You shouldn't use your phone on an aeroplane, Belikov. The signals interfere. We'll crash and die and then we'll never get to Rose." Adrian said.  
"It'll be fine." I said and pressed the call button.  
The phone rang six times before a female voice answered cheerily. "Breville Hotel, Talia speaking, how may I help you?"  
"I'd like to speak to Nathan Francis please." I said.  
"Of course. May I ask who's calling?" Talia asked.  
"Ibrahim Mazur."  
"Of course. One moment please, sir." She put me on hold for a moment, the sounds of classical music filled my ear as I waited for Nathan to come to the phone. Instead, Talia came back. "I'm sorry, Mr Mazur but Mr Francis is entertaining a guest right now and can't be disturbed. He has asked me to inform you that your room is ready. Please come to the hotel at your earliest convienience. Your meeting is arranged for eleven o'clock this evening."  
"Thank you, Talia."  
"You're welcome, Sir. Have a lovely day." She said and then hung up.  
"What did he say?" Christian asked.  
"He couldn't come to the phone. He was too busy entertaining a guest." I said, my stomach rolling as I thought of him 'entertaining' Roza. "He asked Mr Mazur to go to the hotel at his earliest convenience. They have a meeting at eleven tonight."  
Christian checked his watch. "We'll land at nine. That gives us plenty of time to get there."  
I nodded and closed my eyes for a moment, hoping to get some sleep but all I could see was Roza's naked body as Nathan drank from her and dropped her to the ground. I snapped my eyes open and frowned, wondering if I'd ever be able to rid myself of that image. Or if I even should.  
"How're you doing?" Christian asked, his eyes full of sympathy.  
"I'm fine."  
"You don't have to lie to me, Dimitri. Rose is like my sister and I want to burn the bastard to ashes."  
"Don't worry, you'll get your chance." I said and sighed. "I'm fine for now. I just need to focus on getting her back. I can break down later."  
Christian nodded. "If that had been Liss..."  
"It wasn't. Roza would never give Vasilisa up, no matter what it cost her." I said simply. We both knew that Roza would sacrifice her life before she gave her best friend to anyone. For most dhampirs, it was just the way it was, another part of the job, they come first. For Roza, it was so much more than that. Vasilisa wasn't just her best friend but her sister. They'd been bonded together, they'd run away together and they'd faught so many obstacles together. Christian wasn't just Lord Ozera, he was her brother, the person that he best friend loved. Adrian was, well, Adrian. He was charming but misguided, but I knew that she loved him in her own. Roza would have died for any one of them in a heartbeat, without a second thought. She'd throw herself in to situations without thinking them through properly, just to make sure that they were safe. She would have done it for any moroi, royal or not, but with those three it was more. She loved them and they loved her.  
I wanted to tell Christian that, but I couldn't find the right words. Besides, Roza wasn't taken because of Vasilisa. None of this was happening to her because of who her charge was. This was happening because of her father and to a certain extent, me. Nathan had been living on Galena's estate when I had been a strigoi. He'd been her second in command, much like he'd been Abe's. Then I arrived and everything changed, at least for him. Galena had heard of my reputation as a dhampir and was pleased that it had only intensified as a strigoi. My morals had vanished along with my dhampir life and I was... evil. There was nothing that I wouldn't do to achieve whatever I was trying to achieve, much like Nathan. I'd never taken things as far as he had, though I had tortured Roza in my own way.  
In my mind, I'd been doing her a kindness in offering her the gift of immortality but in relaity, she was just another thing for me to own. Nathan had wanted her then but I'd forbidden it. Roza was mine and if anyone else tried to touch her, I'd have killed them. That was the one thing that I hadn't lost from my days as a strigoi. Roza was still mine and I'd nearly lost her too many times already. Nathan had touched her and he was going to die for it.  
I pulled out my book, trying to take my mind off of everything but it didn't work. I was too busy graphically imagining all of the ways that I could torture Nathan and make him pay. It would help some of my guilt, or so I thought at the time. Even if Nathan wasn't doing this because of me, I was still partly responsible. Mama raised me to be a gentlemen and by not walking Roza home, I'd failed the two most important women in my life. It wasn't that Roza couldn't take care of herself, she could, but she'd been held captive by strigoi before and it handed ended well.  
Mason Ashford, one of her best friends, had been killed by the strigoi that were holding them. It had changed her, and Eddie Castile too. They felt guilty. Whether it was because they'd survived and he hadn't or whether it was because they hadn't saved him, I didn't know. I did know that Roza felt worse because Mason had gone back to help her and he'd died for it. His had been the first spirit that she'd ever seen and now she was back in the same place. She was being held by strigoi except this time there was no one to take the focus from her. She was suffering alone with God only knew how many strigoi there. I was potentially walking in to an elaborate trap with two royal moroi as back up. I hadn't thought this through.  
I took out my phone again and dialled another number, though this one I knew by heart. "Alberta." I said when she answered. "I need your help."


	14. Chapter 14

Rose POV

I was glad that Adrian knew where I was because I had no idea. I kept telling myself that I just needed to hold on, to wait for them to come for me, but I didn't know if I could. I knew that I needed to be strong. I needed to get out of here and get back to them. I just had no idea how I was going to do that.  
I was pretty sure that my back was infected. The skin was tight and red hot and whatever I wore always ended up glued to my back. Added to the fact that there were no windows and the door was locked at all times unless Rainbow Girl came in or out, or Nathan did. I tried to imagine what Dimitri would do in this situation but honestly, I didn't know. He'd probably knock through a wall in a Godly fashion and stroll out of here, taking every strigoi that crossed his path down on the way.  
I smiled at the thought. In all honesty, I would have been okay with just curling up in to a ball and dying right there on the bed but I knew that he'd never forgive me. Neither would Liss. I just had to wait. Adrian said that he was coming, which meant that Dimitri was coming.  
The lights had been left off since the last time Rainbow Girl had visited me and I was okay with that. The light in the bathroom worked, so I'd left that on. The dim yellow glow didn't help much in terms of lighting the room, but at least I could see if anyone was trying to sneak in. That didn't really seem like Nathan's style – he seemed like the type on monster to let you know that he's coming so that you end up paralysed with fear.  
I had to hand it to him. He was good at what he did. He'd managed to inflict pain that was more intense than anything I'd ever felt before, both physically and emotionally. He'd isolated me. Truth be told, he'd almost broken me. My resolve was fading quickly and I knew that I couldn't hold out much longer before I was begging for food. I'd found a way around him not letting me drink seeing as he'd unlocked the bathroom door; though he probably knew that I'd drink the water from the tap when he'd done it. Nathan was a lot like my father in that way, never doing anything without having thought it through first.  
My thoughts wandered to Abe and I prayed to any deity that would listen to me, begging them not to let him see the message that Nathan had sent. I assumed that it was one of those things that once you've seen it, you can't un-see it. It was certainly something that once you'd experienced it, it stayed with you. Hopefully it got lost in the mail or something. It was a weak hope but it was the only one that I had left.  
It was pathetic. I was pathetic. According to Adrian, I'd only been here for a week and already, Nathan had broken me down. My last hope wasn't that I'd get out or that Adrian and Dimitri would find me. It was that none of them would see what I'd become. Abe was right about me, I was nothing more than a blood whore. Everything that I'd been before was gone. I was an empty shell of the person that I used to be.  
All I wanted was for Nathan to come back to me, sink his fangs in to my neck and drink from me until there was nothing left.  
I'd searched the room for something to use, something to end it myself, but there was nothing. There were no razors in the bathroom, no pills, nothing that I could make a noose out of. I'd tried to tear the bed sheet apart but it was too thick and there was nothing to cut it with. I'd searched my duffle bag that they'd taken from the apartment but other than a few toiletries, there was nothing of any use in there and I doubted that I could poison myself by eating a bottle of shampoo. I was trapped with no way out and I couldn't cope.  
I'd been staying in bed for the most part, only getting up to use the toilet or stand under the shower in an attempt to unstick my clothes from my back. I spent most of my time asleep, hoping that Adrian would come back to me. I didn't even know how long it had been since he'd visited me. It could have been hours or days.  
The door opened but instead of Rainbow Girl, it was Nathan. His red eyes mocked me as he smiled. "Have you missed me, Rosie?"  
"Not really." I said, clinging to my attitude. It was the only defense that I had left, and even that was running out. "Maybe in another few days."  
He chuckled and laid something on the bed. I looked down and saw that it was some sort of red material. "Wear this tonight, Rosie. We have guests joining us."  
"Who?" I asked, trying not to let myself get too excited. Of course, if Dimitri and Adrian were coming to get me, Nathan wouldn't be telling me about it. He probably expected me to entertain some of his strigoi friends or serve them like the humans did.  
"That's for me to know and you to find out, Rosie." He pressed his lips to my cheek almost tenderly. "I'll send Talia in to help you get ready. I need you to look your best tonight."  
He left the room and I stared after him, wondering what the hell was going on. Rainbow Girl came in shortly afterwards with a basket in her arms. She smiled at me as she came and set her basket down on the bed.  
"Good evening, Rosie." She said. "The master says that I'm to make you look presentable."  
"Why?"  
"I do not ask questions, I just do as I'm told." She said and went to the bathroom, switching the shower on. "Shall I help you clean your wounds?"  
"I'll manage." I said and made my way to the bathroom, knowing that it was pointless to fight her. If I did, she'd just fetch Nathan and I didn't have the energy to deal with the pain that he'd inflict on me.  
I showered quickly, washing my hair and face, doing my best to wash my back although it was difficult. I came out of the bathroom wrapped in two fluffy towels and saw that Rainbow Girl had set herself up on the night stand. There were lotions and hair products and make up spread out and a small mirror had been brought in to the room. An hour later I'd been primped and preened within an inch of my life and I looked nothing like myself.  
I'd lost weight while I'd been there; the red satin cocktail dress that Nathan had given me to wear hung loosely off my shoulders. It was a size too big but it was my size, or at least, the size I'd been before. My hair had been dried and straightened and scraped back in to some sort of French twist. My eyes had been lined with winged eyeliner, bronzer applied to by cheeks and red lipstick that matched the colour of my dress applied to my lips. She'd managed to hide what was left of my bruises and the lipstick made it impossible to see that my split lip. I looked like any other girl, getting ready to go on a date. My stomach rolled as I realised that was what tonight was, or at least the first part. What would happen when Nathan's guest arrived was something that I tried not to think about.  
It wasn't a look that I'd have chosen for myself. Unless I was training, I usually kept my hair down because I knew that Dimitri loved it. He'd always been attracted to my hair. I wore as little make up as possible, only ever using a slightly tinted lip balm. I looked like me, but an alien version of myself.  
Rainbow Girl smiled as she presented me with the mirror as if I were a masterpiece. "You look beautiful, Rosie."  
"I look like a prostitute." I said.  
Her brows furrowed. "The master will like it."  
"Well, the master can go and-"  
"I'll take you down for dinner now." She said as she gathered up her supplies.  
"I don't have any shoes."  
"You won't need shoes, Rosie." She said.  
She led me down to the dining room and presented me to Nathan as if I were cattle at a market, spinning me around so that he could see me from all angles. He nodded his approval and then dismissed her. He kept his eyes on me as he took my appearance in, a smug grin on his face.  
"You look lovely, Rosie." He said and led me over to a small table with a white table cloth and a single red rose in a vase. He held my chair out for me as if he were some sort of gentleman and then pushed it in once I'd sat down. "That colour suits your skin tone."  
"Thank you." I said, knowing that it was he expected me to say.  
He nodded as if to say 'you're welcome' and then asked me what I would like to eat.  
"I don't know." I said, feeling as if there was some sort of trick coming.  
"You can have anything you like, Rosie. My staff will make it for you. Pasta, pizza, chicken... The options are endless."  
I took a moment to think about. I couldn't have anything too rich, my stomach wouldn't take it after a few days of not eating. I also needed something that would give me some energy, so carbs and protein were a good choice. In the end I opted for chicken breast and brown rice, hoping that that would serve me well for the next few days. He nodded and summoned one of his humans, a tall man with shoulder length blonde hair, and gave him my order. He also told him to bring a bottle of wine.  
"I'd like to get to know you tonight, Rosie. I realise that I know nothing about you, except what I've heard. Tell me about your life." He said as if he were actually interested.  
"There isn't much to tell." I said, not wanting to tell him about any of it.  
"I could force you to tell me, Rosie." He clenched his jaw and frowned at me. "I'd much rather that you told me by choice. We're going to be together for a long time. I'd like to get to know you."  
"There really isn't much to tell. I train, I work, I eat... That's my life."  
"What do you like to eat?" He asked.  
"The things that I shouldn't. Pizza, doughnuts."  
"Pizza and doughnuts are the way to your heart?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. "Then why didn't you ask for pizza?"  
"It'll be too rich for me now."  
"Why?" He asked.  
"Because I've not eaten since the night you threw my pasta across the room." I snapped and regretted it instantly.  
"Have they not been feeding you?" He asked. I shook my head and he growled. "Talia!"  
Rainbow Girl came in and bowed her head slightly as she stood before him. "Yes, master?"  
"Rosie tells me that she's not eaten since the first night that she was here. That was a week ago."  
"Yes, master."  
"I told you to take care of her. See to her wounds, bring her anything that she needed." He said as if he actually cared about my health. "Why didn't you bring her food?"  
"She never asked for food." She said, her voice quivering slightly.  
I looked down at my hands in my lap, not wanting to see the look on her face. She looked devastated that she'd failed him. This is what strigoi did to people, they told them that they'd be awakened if they served for a number of years. They made them want to please them, in any way they asked, and they usually killed them. That was the fate that awaited her but I knew that I couldn't save her. I couldn't even save myself.  
"And did you take her water?" Nathan asked slowly.  
"No, master. She didn't ask for any."  
He turned to me then, reaching over the table and lifting my chin with his fingers so until I met his eyes. "Why didn't you ask for any food or water, Rosie?"  
"I didn't know that I could." I said honestly. It wasn't very often that hostages could ask for anything.  
"Of course you didn't." He said. "I should have made that more clear. What have you been drinking?"  
"Water from the bathroom."  
He looked to Rainbow Girl again and snarled at her. "Because of you, my Rosie has had to drink tap water. Do you know how many chemicals are in tap water."  
She shook her head as her eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry, master."  
"You will be." He said, his threat obvious. "From now on, you are to see that Rosie gets three meals a day and as much to drink as she likes. If she wants to drink champagne all day, you will see that she has it. Is that understood."  
"Yes, master."  
"Good. You are dismissed." He said and then waited until she'd practically run from the room before he turned back to me. "I must apologise for my staff, Rosie. They should have taken better care of you."  
I regarded him steadily, surprised by his sudden caring. Why would he care if I was eating or not, or about the chemicals in tap water. He'd beaten with a belt until my back was shredded and filmed himself raping me so that he could send it to my family. Why would he care about whether or not I was eating. I nodded but didn't say anything, to stunned to actually form words.  
"Rest assured, she will be punished for her lack of thought."  
"Punished?"  
"Yes. All of my pets understand that if they don't serve me to the best of their ability then they will be severely punished."  
"How?" I asked, though I wasn't sure that I wanted to know.  
"I forgot that you had a thirst for violence." He smiled at me before continuing. "They will be beaten, much as you were when you first arrived. My pets need to learn their place from the beginning. They have to earn their reward. However, they live the life of luxury with me. They want for nothing, their every whim is met. Take Talia for instance; every week she colours her hair another unnatural colour, but I allow it. She has the best make up products. Charles has the latest technology, Ashiq has a different woman in his bed each night. He thinks that because he won't be going to heaven, he won't be getting the fifty virgins that his God is supposed to give him. I have and I will continue to do so until it is his time to join me in immortality."  
"Is that what I am? One of your pets?" I asked, feeling my temper boiling up.  
"Yes and no. You are a temporary pet. You are my weapon of choice in the destruction of father but after that is finished..." He paused, searching for the right words. "After your father is gone, you will be my mate, my queen."  
I laughed at him, hysterically. Not because it was funny but because it wasn't. Me, Rose Hathaway, the mate of a strigoi.  
"Why is that funny?" Nathan demanded.  
"It, it isn't." I said as tears rolled my down my cheeks and then took a moment to get my breath back. "You think that I would accept you as my mate? I'm a dhampir. I've spent my life killing your kind. And after everything that you've done to me, you think that I'd be willingly be your mate."  
"I don't really care about willingly. You are here and you are mine. You will be mine until I tire of you or awaken you." He said simply. "I've waited such a long time for you to be mine, Rosie. I'm not going to let you go. You cost me a lot, Rosie. You are mine."  
Charles came in to the dining room, saving me from thinking of something to say to him. He placed a plate of plain chicken breast and rice in front of me, poured some wine in to my glass and then left without a word. Normally I would have said thank you, but he didn't deserve my thanks. My mouth watered as soon as the scent hit me and I picked up my knife and fork, digging in immediately.  
"Tell me about your friends." Nathan said as he watched me eat.  
"Which ones?" I asked.  
"Your dhampir friends, your moroi friends. You charge."  
I swallowed and frowned. I didn't want to speak to him about Liss or Christian, Adrian or Eddie. Instead, I turned it around on him. "Why don't you tell me about your friends."  
He laughed low in his throat. "I don't have friends, Rosie. I have acquaintances, I have employees and I have pets. And now, I have you."  
One of his humans came in and whispered something in his ear. Nathan's eyes shot to me with a scowl. He nodded, dismissing the human.  
"Rosie, is there something that you'd like to tell me?" He asked, his voice sickly sweet.  
"I don't think so." I said, eating more of the chicken before I was forced to starve again.  
"Really?" He asked, his fists clenched. "Then why is that I have a security breech in my hotel?"  
He must have seen the excitement in my eyes, the joy of someone finally coming to rescue me, because he stood up and hovered over me. He lashed out, the back of his hand smacking my cheek with so much force that I fell off my chair. I gritted my teeth against the pain and stood up, straightening the skirt of the dress. He grabbed a handful of my hair and launched me in to the table. I landed on one of the plates, the china smashing under my hand and slicing my palm open. He pulled me up off the table and dropped me to the ground in front of him. He started to unbuckle his belt as he glared down at me. "Your father broke the rules, and you will be punished for it."  
My father? Abe was here? Which meant that Dimitri was here too. Elation filled my heart and I knew that I could face anything that Nathan would give me. I just needed to endure it until they were here. Nathan fisted his hand in my hair and pulled me to my feet, throwing my at the table again so that I was bent over it.  
The lashes rained down on my already shredded back, making me howl in pain. It was worse than it had been the first time, probably due to it already being so tender. He stopped for a moment so I pushed myself up from the table, ignoring the pain in my back and hand. I turned around and lashed out at him, trying to claw his eyes out. Of course, all I managed to do was smear my blood across his face.  
He laughed at me and grabbed my arms as if I were no stronger than a rag doll, pinned them to my sides and pulled me against him. He ran his tongue across my cheek and then sank his teeth in to my neck. He started to drink from me and I tried to fight him off but as the blood left my body, the dizziness set in again.  
And then the doors to the dining room burst open. I couldn't make out the faces, I just knew that I was finally safe and I let go.

* * *

 **Note -**

Thanks for all the positive reviews! I wasn't expecting to so many people to enjoy this story.  
 **Rito Dey -** You were given fair warning that the scenes were going to get dark and I warned of sexual violence. Yes, rape is a disgusting and harsh thing but I'm not writing this for entertainment purposes or because I'm one of the weirdos that fantasize about this kind of stuff. I have my own reasons for writing it. You chose to read it even after I warned you what was coming. You'll be pleased to hear that the worst of it is over for Rose, for now. At least physically. She's got a long road ahead of her, like an abuse victim does.

Thanks for sticking with me guys :)


	15. Chapter 15

Dimitri POV

I waited outside the Breville Hotel with Christian and Adrian, waiting for Alberta to arrive. It was half past ten, which meant we had half an hour until Nathan and Abe's meeting. Of course, Abe wasn't going to be there but Nathan didn't know that.  
A black van pulled up along side us and the side door opened. Twenty or so of Court's guardians poured in to the street, Alberta leading them. "Belikov."  
"Alberta."  
"She's in there?" She asked. She had her guardian mask on but there was no hiding the concern in her eyes. Alberta had always liked Roza for being such an independent young woman and had come to think of her as a daughter.  
"Yes."  
"You're sure?"  
"This is where the meeting was set up for." I said.  
"That doesn't mean that this is where she's being held." Alberta pointed out.I nodded but didn't want to admit that she could be right. Roza had to be here. The next voice that I heard was Janene's as she called my name.  
"Belikov! What the hell do you think you're doing?" She demanded. "You left me behind! I'm her mother. I have every right to be here."  
"I didn't want you to have to see... that."  
She nodded but still frowned. "You could have told me that you'd found her."  
"I didn't want to compromise the task."  
"Are you saying that I would compromise it?"  
"She's your daughter." I said calmly. "You're first priority would be getting to her."  
"No. My first priority is getting my hands on the son of a bitch that did that to her." She said, her eyes fierce. The woman was ready for a war and I was sure that she was going to get one. "Besides, you're here. Are you telling me that your first priority isn't getting to her?"  
"Yes. That's why those two are here." I said, nodding to Christian and Adrian. "I'll be right beside you and the son of a bitch."  
She gave me a small smile and nodded. "I knew there was a reason that I let you be with her."

We turned to Alberta, trusting her to have a plan. She pulled out a piece of paper, blue prints for the hotel, and laid them on the bonnet of the van. "Okay. There are three exits to the building, one at the front, one at the back and one through the basement. You all know where you need to be and what you need to be doing. Belikov, you're with Janene and myself. You two," she said to Christian and Adrian. "I know why you're here but in all honesty, you're a liabilty. I'm going to have to ask you to wait in the van with Mr Mazur."  
"But I can help." Christian said.  
Alberta looked at him for a moment and shook her head.  
"The Queen commanded me to be here."  
"The Queen is also your fiancée and the best friend of the victim. The Queen's judgement is compromised in this situation, mine is not."  
"I'm going to tell her that you said that." Christian glared at her.  
"And she'll thank me for keeping you alive long enough to do so. You're not coming." She said firmly. "In the van with Mazur. Now."  
They went to the side of the van, mumbling to each other and then stopped. Adrian came back with a grin. "Mazur isn't in the van."  
"What?"  
"The van. It's empty." He said.  
"God dammit." She turned to the guardians again and sighed. "We have a moroi in the field. Ibrahim Mazur. Retrive him before he hurts himself."  
The guardians nodded and then we were in motion. Everyone took their positions as Alberta handed me an ear piece so that I could hear what she could hear.  
"Was that your idea?" I asked Janene.  
She looked up at me, feigning innocence just like Roza did. "I would never risk the life of a Moroi over that of a guardian." She said with such sureness that I almost believed her.  
"Neither would I." I said in the same tone. It was part of the job description. Guardians died in the line of duty all the time in order to protect the moroi. But to save Roza, Janene and I would have sacrificed every moroi.  
Janene looked down at her phone for a moment and smiled. "Come with me." She said, taking her ear piece out and walking down a corridor.  
I followed behind her. "Where are we going?"  
"To the son of a bitch that hurt our girl." She said quietly, not wanting to alert anyone to our presence.  
"Should we tell Alberta?"  
"I think we deserve a head start. Don't you?" She asked, her eyes glittering with lust for the fight ahead.  
"I couldn't agree more." I said and followed behind her. "There's something that you should know. Roza didn't leave Court by choice. She was taken. Which means that-"  
"Someone took her." She stopped and spun around to face me. "Someone in Court took her."  
I nodded, knowing that she understood. Someone, either a moroi or a dhampir had taken her. As soon as we got back to Court it would be my personal mission to find the person that had taken my Roza from me and given her to the monster that had hurt her.  
"Does the Queen know?"  
"When I left she didn't know anything other than we'd found her. She's been struggling with darkness." I said.  
"I'll make sure that she knows when we return." Janene said and carried on walking.  
A couple of minutes later, we met Abe standing outside I door. He had his ear pressed to the door, listening.  
"Why aren't you in there?" Janene asked.  
"I was waiting for you." He said.

That was when we heard a scream. I barely had time to tell Abe to move before I kicked the door open, my stake drawn and my eyes alert. Nathan had his arms around Roza and his lips pressed to her neck. At first glance they looked as if they were in a lover's embrace but then I saw the thin line of red that was running down Roza's collarbone, the fear in her eyes as they locked on mine. Relief washed over her beautiful face for a moment and then she closed her eyes, finally letting go.  
Nathan's eyes flicked up to us and he let her go, dropping her to the floor. I forced myself to stay where I was, fighting the urge to rush to her side. He growled low in his throat but then smiled at me, his teeth red from Roza's blood. "Belikov. How nice to see you again, though I must say you certainly look different."  
I didn't answer him, knowing that he was buying his time. I flicked my eyes over to Janene but she wasn't looking at me. Her eyes were fixed on Nathan, her hand clutching her stake in a tight fist. The look she was giving him would have been enough to scare most people, probably some strigoi too, but if Nathan was scared he didn't show it. He regarded her with smugness that made me clench my jaw.  
"Zmey. You brought friends." He said.  
"They're here to ensure that Rose gets home." Abe said.  
Nathan nodded but I could see in his eyes that he had no intention of letting her go. I wondered for a moment why we were engaging with him. Guardian protocol dictated that we were to never interact with strigoi. Those that had been moroi before they were awakened still had powerful compulsion skills. Nathan didn't have them but that didn't mean that there weren't more strigoi lurking around. Humans were also a threat because we'd taken an oath to never harm them unless it was absolutely necessary and stigoi usually kept humans around as pets and feeders. Nathan was stalling for time and we were allowing him to do it. "Did you like my message, Zmey?"  
"How could you do that to her?" Janene asked, not giving Abe a chance to answer. "She's just a girl."  
"She's so much more than that, and we all know it. Rosie is special." Nathan said as he looked down at her. "She's more than any of you know."  
Yeva's words came back to me suddenly. When Roza had been poisoned, she'd said something similar. She'd said that if Roza died then the world would change and that I didn't know how important she was. Had Yeva known that this was going to happen to her? And if she had, why hadn't she warned me?  
I pushed the thoughts of my grandmother aside and focused on the scene in front of me. Roza on the floor, Nathan gloating, Abe staring at his daughter with guilt and sadness, Janene itching to wrap her fingers around Nathan's throat.  
"How?" I asked, trying to buy myself more time. "How is she more?"  
"When I'd first heard the stories of Rosie, I'd thought that it was all an exaggeration but as I got to know her... It's all true. The bond with the Dragomir girl-"  
"The girls lost the bond." Janene said. "If you're planning on using it to get to Vasilisa then-"  
"No. I have much bigger things in mind. Killing the Queen doesn't serve my interests." He said. "Rosie is unique. There has never been another dhampir like her. She is stronger than most. She surrounds herself in spirits and doesn't even realise that she's doing it. It's an amazing thing to watch."  
"If you don't want to use her to get to the Queen, why do you want her?" Janene asked.  
"Belikov understands." He grinned at me and raised an eyebrow. "She's quite an experience."  
I roared and lunge at him, no longer able to keep myself calm. I saw Janene and Abe rush to Roza in my peripheral vision and then gave my all to Nathan. Every ounce of anger and frustration, every primal urge to protect what was mine. The world around me faded away to nothing. The only things that existed in that moment were myself and the evil creature that I was fighting. I lashed out at him, dragging my stake across his face. It wouldn't kill him, but it wouldn't heal properly either.  
Someone else joined the fight then and from the flash of red hair, I knew that it was Janene. If she was with me then i knew that Roza was all right, at least for now, and I let myself relax a little. Janene and I worked in perfect unison, much like Roza and I always had, and we quickly had him cornered. I took a small step back, giving Janene the room to do what needed to be done. As much I would have loved to be the one to end him, I knew that it was something that Janene needed to do. However, instead of ramming her stake through his heart, she dropped it to the ground. Instead, she hit him. And hit him. And hit him. She was working him over when Alberta's voice boomed through the room.  
"Hathaway! Stand down." She yelled, but Janene hadn't heard her because she was so focused on the task at hand.

I turned and saw Alberta and a few of the other guardians had been captured, their wrists bound as they were led in to the room by strigoi and humans.  
"Janene." I laid my hand on her shoulder. "Stop."  
"No. The son of a bitch deserves it." She cried.  
"Yes, he does." I agreed but she needed to stop. The strigoi that were holding Alberta and the others wouldn't think twice about ripping their throats out to save Nathan. I wasn't prepared to lose them.  
The strigoi that was holding Alberta stepped forward, dragging her with him. "Step away from the master or she will be the first to die."  
I put my hand on Janene's elbow and pulled her away from Nathan gently. We stood a few feet away from him, close enough that I could get to him when I had the chance but far enough away that we weren't an immediate threat.  
The strigoi nodded to the others and they came towards us. Two went to Abe and Roza, pulling Abe away from her. They picked Roza up as if she were a bride about to be carried through the threshold and took her to the edge of the room. They were surprisingly gentle with her. The two that came towards Janene and I attempted to take my stake from me, but I grabbed hold of one of them and launched him across the room.  
"Master. We have them all. What would you like me to do with them?" The strigoi asked.  
"Nothing, yet." He smiled down at Janene and winked at her. "You should have staked me when you had the chance."  
Janene spat in his face but he just laughed at her. "Give me my daughter." She demanded.  
"Why would I do that?" Nathan asked. "You abandoned her in an academy for most of her life. The fondest memory that she has of you is when you used to brush her hair and sing your version of 'Daisy' to her. The rest of her childhood and teenage years is full of resentment for the mother that never loved her enough to be with her. You always put your job before your own blood."  
"Rose understands now that she's older. She make the same decisions that I do every day."  
"I doubt that Rosie would abandon her own child the way that you abandoned her." Nathan said. He looked over to the strigoi that held the guardians. "Take them to the basement. I'll deal with them when I've finished here."  
The strigoi nodded and marched the guardians out of the room, leaving Nathan with Janene, Abe, Roza and myself. The one that was holding Roza put her down gently on one of the tables and left as well.  
"I used to be just like you." He said to Janene. "I was dumped in an academy and raised on the dhampir motto. 'They come first'. The 'they' that came first for me was Rosie's father. I was his man, his second in command. The one that solved his problems and made his enemies disappear. I thought that that would have earned me some respect, all those years of service. Of course, it didn't. When the strigoi came to kill him, he offered me up to them instead."  
"It wasn't like that." Abe said quietly. "You knew the risks of the job when you took it."  
"Yes, but I never knew that you were so... hated. It's amazing, how many people would offer you up like you did me. Those that would give me the one thing that would bring you to your knees."  
"Who? Who gave you my daughter?" Abe demanded.  
"It's irrelevant now. You won't be seeing them again." He said and then turned to me. "I'll make you a deal, Belikov. You're so fixated on what's write and wrong, dark and light, evil and pure. I will give you all of the guardians that you came with and will let you leave with them. You and Ms Hathaway may leave with them. All that i ask is you give Mazur to me."  
"What about Roza?" I asked.  
"Rosie is mine now." He said simply. "She will remain with me and if- ah!" He cried as an invisible wind forced him across the room.

"Rose doesn't belong to anyone." Adrian said from the doorway. Christian stood beside him, a fireball in his hand.  
I never though that I'd be so happy to see Adrian Ivashkov. I'd forgotten that spirit users had good control over all of the elements as well as the spirit. Most moroi only specialised in one element but spirit users could wield all of them will considerable skill. Christian left Adrian's side and rushed over to Roza. He put his fingers to the side of her neck that hadn't been bitten, checking for a pulse. His shoulders relaxed when he found one. He took his jacket off and laid it over her before coming to stand with Janene and I.  
"She's cold but she's fine." He said before forming another fireball in his hand.  
"Did you really think that I would kill my Rosie?" He asked, his eyes fixed on mine. "She's so very special. And her blood is like the nectar of the Gods. I've never tasted anything like it. You know what I'm talking about, Belikov, you've tasted the darkness in her soul."  
I wanted to tell him that there was nothing dark about Roza's soul but there was no point in arguing with him. He gazed over at my Roza and, if strigoi were capable of love, I would have sworn that he loved her. It was insane but there was a look in his eyes. And then there was pain.  
In my shoulder there was a fire spreading, radiating down my arm. I looked down and saw a hole in the right shoulder of my duster. I'd been shot.  
"Get down." Adrian called a moment before another shot was fired. It hit my arm and then everyone was in action.  
Christian threw a fireball somewhere behind me and Adrian came to me, his hands outstretched. Abe threw himself over Roza's body and Janene rushed to my side. Adrian healed me quickly, warmth spreading through my body as the wounds closed and the pain faded away to nothing.  
When I looked up, Nathan was gone. I turned, searching the room but he was nowhere to be seen. The only person left was a girl with rainbow hair trapped in a circle of Christian's fire.


	16. Chapter 16

Rose POV

I woke up to the face of my mother as she hovered over me. She was crying, something that I'd never seen her do, as she stroked my hair back. She was saying something but I couldn't work out what it was. I closed my eyes again, only for her to shake me.  
I opened them again and tried to smile up at her but it felt like it came out as more of a grimace. I was happy though. She was here. She was here and I was finally safe. It was then that I realised that I wasn't in the dining room of the hotel, or my room there. I was somewhere else. Somewhere where there was a constant beeping that was starting to get really annoying.  
I looked around, trying to work out where I was and that's why I saw him. Dimitri was sitting on a chair, his head tilted back as he slept. He looked awful; he hadn't shaved for what looked like a few days and he hard dark circles under his eyes. He was still the most handsome man that I'd ever seen though.  
And that's when it hit me. I wasn't really with them. My brain was playing tricks on me again, bringing him to me when I needed him the most. The last thing I remembered was being in the dining room with Nathan. He bit me again because there'd been a breach in his security and the hotel. I'd thought that Dimitri had come for me but he hadn't.  
"Go away." I murmured. "Let me sleep."  
"Rose?" Janene said, her warm hands brushing my hair back. "Rose, it's okay. You're safe now."  
"No." I said, closing my eyes again.  
"Rose, I'm here." Janene said but ignored her and tried to block her out.  
They weren't really here. I was still there, stuck in the hotel with Nathan and his pets. I felt myself moving, though it wasn't by choice. I kept my eyes closed but I felt as if I were sitting up.  
"She doesn't know where she is." Janene's voice said to someone, probably Dimitri.  
I felt someone holding my hand and my eyes flew open. When Dimitri had come to me before, I hadn't felt him. He hadn't touched me because he hadn't really been there. Dimitri was touching me now. I looked in to his warm, brown eyes that were filled with exhaustion and misery and I knew that he was really there.  
"You're in the hospital, Roza." He said, his hand squeezing mine gently. It made sense then, how I'd suddenly been sitting up. Someone had moved the hospital bed so that I was upright.  
"You're really here?" I asked.  
He nodded and I couldn't hold it back any longer. I let out a choked sob before burying my face in my hands, letting my hair shield me from Dimitri's gaze. I tensed, waiting for him to wrap his arms around me and try to comfort me but they never came. I glanced up at him, the God that I had loved from the very beginning, and saw that he was broken. Tears streamed down his face as he watched me and he looked defeated.  
"I am so sorry that I failed you, Roza. I'll never forgive myself for it." He said, his voice thick.  
"It's not your fault." I said quietly.  
"I should have been with you."  
 _You were._ I thought, desperately wanting to tell him about my dream, how it had been him that had given me strength. It wouldn't do him any good though, if anything it would just make him feel worse. "It's okay, Dimitri."  
"It will never be okay, Roza." He said and turned away from me. I saw him wipe his face before he left my room, leaving me alone with my mother.  
She was crying again, but wiped her tears away quickly. "You're safe now, Rose."  
I nodded. "How did I get here?"  
"You don't remember?" She asked. I shook my head and she told me. "We got to the hotel and when we found you, you were unconscious. We brought you home. You woke a few times, I thought that you'd remember."  
"Did you kill him?" I asked.  
"We don't have to talk about that now, Rose. You need to focus on getting better now."  
"Did you see it?" I asked.  
She nodded but didn't say anything.  
"Who else?"  
"It isn't important right now, Rose."  
"Who else saw it?"  
"Dimitri. Your father. Adriand and Christian. Alberta." She and swiped a tear away from her eye. "Are you ready for some visitors? Everyone is waiting to see you."  
I nodded and she left to go and fetch them.

Adrian was the first one to come to me. He dragged the chair that Dimitri had been sleeping in up to the bed and sat beside me. "How're you feeling, little dhampir."  
"Sore." I said, not meeting his eyes. "You said that you wouldn't let them see it."  
"I know. I'm sorry but-"  
"They've all seen it."  
"It's okay, Rose. No one blames you." He said and reached out for me. I flinched and he dropped his hand. "Sorry."  
I nodded. I knew that it wasn't really his fault but I couldn't bare the thought of them seeing me like that. "Thank you. For saving me."  
"Any time." He said. "Is there anything I can do? Do you want me to heal you?"  
"No." I didn't want him to heal me. I wanted to feel the pain.  
"Do you want me to fetch you anything? Your own clothes or something to eat?"  
"No."  
"Shall I fetch Liss or Dimitri?" He asked.  
I shook my head. "I'm tired."  
"I'll let you sleep then." He said but made no move to leave. He picked up the control for the bed and pressed a button so that the bed was almost flat. "I'll just sit here for a while."  
I nodded and closed my eyes.

When I woke up, Adrian was gone and Dimitri was in his place.  
"Good morning, Roza."  
"How long have you been sitting there?"  
"An hour, maybe two."  
"Why?"  
"I couldn't bare to be apart from you." He said, his eyes swirling with emotion. I gave him a small smile, not entirely sure what to say. He stood up slowly and sat on the edge of the bed, his hand resting on mine. If he noticed my flinch, he didn't say anything or try to move away. "How are you feeling, Roza?"  
"Okay." I lied smoothly.  
"Please, Roza, don't lie to me." He said sadly. Perhaps my lie wasn't as smooth as I'd thought. "Are you in pain?"  
"A little."  
"I'll fetch the doctor." He said and stood up. He looked down at me for a moment as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't.  
He came back a minute or so later with Dr Nikolev following.  
"Dimitri tells me that you're in pain, Rose." He said with a small smile. "On a scale of one to ten, how badly does it hurt?"  
Honestly, it felt as if I was lying on a bed made of broken glass but I wasn't about to tell him that. "Maybe a four."  
"Which is the guardian term for an eight." He said with a small chuckle. "I've been dealing with dhampirs for a long time, Rose. I've learned to double the number that they give me." He looked down at my chart and nodded before closing it. "I'm going to give you something for the pain, that should take it right down to maybe a one. A real one, not a dhampir one."  
"Thanks." I said, hoping that it would work.  
Dr Nikolev went over to a cupboard and pulled out a syringe and a small glass bottle. He poked the needle in to the top of the bottle, turned it upside down and drew some of the clear liquid up in to it. He poked it in to an IV that was in the back of my hand and a delicious numbness washed over me as the drugs took the pain away.  
"That should do it." Dr Nikolev said with a small smile. "I'll send the nurse to you in a couple of hours."  
I nodded and smiled up at him. "Thank you."  
"It might you a little drowsy but you look like you could use the sleep. You'll start to feel better soon." He said and left, his white coat flapping behind him as he walked.  
My eyes started to droop and I heard Dimtri's voice as if I were under water. "Sleep, Roza. I'll watch over you."

I woke up in a room that I'd hoped I'd never have to see again. I was back in the cream room at the hotel, wearing the white sacrificial virgin dress that Nathan had given me. I closed my eyes and opened them again, praying that when I opened them again, I'd be back in the hospital.  
"You're wasting your time, Rosie." Nathan's voice said from behind me. His breath ticked my neck as he spoke and the hairs on my body stood on end. "You didn't think that you'd be able to leave me so easily did you?"  
I turned around to face him. "Why am I here?"  
"This is how you told them where you were, wasn't it? In a spirit dream?"  
"How-"  
"I know all about your friend, Adrian Ivashkov. He's a spirit user, just like Vasilisa Dragomir." Nathan said. "I never imagined that it would feel so real though. It's almost as if we're not in a dream at all."  
"How did you bring me here?" I asked.  
"There are more spirit users out there than you know. It wasn't that difficult to find one." He trailed his fingers down my cheek. "You look like yourself again. Your wounds are healed. You're beautiful, Rosie."  
I stepped away from him, only to find myself tied down to a bed.  
"My friend gave me complete control of the dream, Rosie. You're mine again and you will be until I come for you." He said and laid beside me, kissing my neck.  
I screamed and tried to fight him, but with my hands and legs tied down it was impossible. The edges of the room started to blur and I sighed a breath of relief.  
"What's happening?" He demanded, looking around him in horror.  
"I'm waking up. You may control the dream, but you don't control me." I said and then he disappeared completely.

"Roza? Roza, you're okay. You're safe." I felt Dimitri's arms around me as he whispered the words in my ear. "I've got you. It's just a dream, Roza."  
Having him so close to me made my heart race, though it wasn't in a good way. I pushed him off and made myself sit up, ignoring the pain in my back. I knew that Dimitri wasn't going to hurt me. I knew that he loved me but I couldn't let him touch me.  
"I'm sorry." He said and moved away from me, going to stand by the wall.  
"You didn't kill him, did you?"  
"Roza-"  
"Tell me the truth, Dimitri, please." I said, aware of the almost begging tone in my voice.  
"No." He said. "There was a complication. He managed to escape whilst everyone was otherwise occupied."  
I nodded slowly, needing a moment to take that information in. I'd woken up, needing to hear Dimitri say that Nathan was dead. Needing it so that I knew the spirit dream I'd been in had actually been a nightmare. Of course, if he was alive then there was a very strong possibility that he had actually found a spirit user to bring me to him in a spirit dream. If he had a moroi working with him, no matter what the circumstances were, then I wasn't safe in here. In the hospital or in Court.  
I stood up on shaky legs and pulled the leads from my chest and IV from the back of my hand.  
"Roza? Are you okay?" Dimitri asked, taking a step towards me.  
"I can't stay here." I said and turned turned away from him, desperately searching for my clothes but I couldn't see them anywhere. Apparently, the clothes that I'd been wearing had been thrown away because my little room in the hospital was empty. I had nothing but the little hospital gown that they'd left open at the back.  
Dimitri seemed to have noticed the same thing because he gasped. It wasn't the heated gasps of our past, the ones filled with lust and want, it was pained.  
I hadn't actually seen the full extent of the damage that Nathan had inflicted on me but I'd known that it was bad by the pain.  
Dimitri had seen some horrors in his life but the sound that he made... it broke my heart. I turned around to face him and my heart broke even more. For him, for myself. His eyes were wide, his face was pale and his mouth hung open slightly. His hands were at his sides, clenching and unclenching as if he wanted to touch me or hit something. Knowing Dimitri, it was probably a combination of both. He'd want to comfort me but beat the living Hell out of whoever had hurt me.  
He came towards me, his hands out in front of him as he made his intentions clear. He rested his hands on my shoulders lightly and gently pushed me back towards the bed.  
"You have to let me go, Dimitri."  
"That's not going to happen." He promised, his voice low but fierce.  
"He knows that I'm here." I said, fresh tears filling my eyes. "He's not going to stop until I'm his or I'm dead. Please," I hated that I was begging but it was the only way to save him. "Please, let me go."  
"Roza, my sweet, beautiful Roza. If he wants to take to you from me, he'll have to kill me first." He said and brought me in to his arms.  
I tensed up as I fought the panic that caught in my throat. I breathed in his scent, hoping that it would calm but it didn't. He was too close and I needed to get away. Tears fell down my face and soaked in to his chest but he didn't seem to mind. He just held me, whispering something in Russian as he rocked me gently.  
The nurse came in then. "You should be in bed, Miss Hathaway." She came over to us and pried us apart, leading me back over to the bed.  
"Sorry."  
"And why aren't you connected to anything, young lady? How are you supposed to get better if you won't let the medicine work?" She went about connecting all the leads back up, placing them on my chest and then reinserted the IV. She turned on Dimitri then, pointing her finger at him. "If you aren't going to help her then you're a hindrance and you'll have to go. What's it going to be?" She asked, her hands on her hips.  
"I'll make sure that she behaves." He said solemnly.  
"Good." She turned back to me and started taking my vitals, sighing at my blood pressure. "You need to calm yourself down, Miss Hathaway. High blood pressure is no good to you and it makes my job even harder."  
I rolled my eyes, trying my best to bite back the insults that I wanted to throw at her. In my head I was screaming ' _Let's see how your blood pressure is after being held hostage for a week. Being fed off of and raped_ '. Instead I apologised and did my best to sit still.  
"I've been asked to check your wounds for infection. Normally that wouldn't be my job but Sandra called in sick, so I've been left to do the grunt work." She muttered the last part as she walked to the other side of the bed. I was facing Dimitri, my legs dangling as she pushed my gown just off my shoulders. She gasped when she saw my back. I looked over my shoulder at her and saw her take a step back as if I had the plague. "Oh, my dear girl. What happened to you?"  
I looked over at Dimitri but he wasn't looking at me. He was looking down at the floor, his fists clenched. I looked back to the nurse but didn't know what to say to her. Instead, I just told her that I was fine.  
"Honey, you are far from fine." She looked to Dimitri. "Are you her next of kin?"  
He shook his head. "No, I'm her... No, I'm not."  
"I need to speak to her next of kin. Can I trust you to keep her in the bed?"  
"Yes." He said and then she left the room.  
"Is it really that bad?" I asked, trying to look over my shoulder but I couldn't see anything. Dimitri wouldn't look at me, so it must have been that bad. I stood up but Dimitri stopped me.  
"Where are you going?" He asked.  
"To the bathroom."  
Dimitri nodded and pointed to a door on the opposite side of the room. I went inside and stood in front of the mirror over the sink. I took of the papery hospital gown and turned around, using the mirror to see me back.  
It really was that bad. My back looked like someone had sliced criss-crosses all over my back, except they matched the thickness of Nathan's belt. Where the buckle had hit me there were deep purple bruises and puncture marks where the prong must have pierce my skin. It looked sore and was oozing a little, but at least it wasn't bleeding.  
I looked over to Dimitri and the look on his face broke my heart.


	17. Chapter 17

Dimitri POV

I watched Roza as she padded across the small room and opened the door to the small bathroom. It had a toilet and a small sink, but I knew that that wasn't why she was going. We was going for the mirror that was above the sink. Part of me knew that I should stop her but I couldn't bring myself to do it. She deserved to see what had happened to her.  
She dropped the hospital gown to floor and turned around so that her back was facing the mirror. She took a deep breath and then looked over her shoulder. She didn't make a sound, she just studied herself as if the shredded back she was looking at belonged to someone else. I was too busy looking at the rest of her body.  
Her neck still hand multiple fang marks that had scabbed over. She had dark circles under her eyes and yellowing bruises on her face. Her arms were thin and I could almost count her ribs. She'd lost her curves and her thighs were bruised as well, perfect finger marks were all over them. It was amazing to think that she looked so different after only a week and a half.  
I wanted to ask her questions but I knew that she wasn't ready to answer them and I didn't know if I was ready to hear her answers.  
She finished looking at her back and then looked to me. Her eyes filled with pain for a moment and then she shut the bathroom door and shut me out. I couldn't stay there any longer.  
I went in to the waiting room and everyone looked up at me.  
"How is she?" Christian asked.  
"I don't know." I said honestly. "The doctor gave her something for the pain and she went to sleep for a while. She's in the bathroom now."  
"Can we see her?" He asked.  
"I don't know if she's ready for any visitors." I said. "Where is Vasilisa?"  
"She was here for a while but she got called away. Simon and Gavin are with her."  
I nodded and then sat down beside him. "Is everything okay?"  
"I don't know. Alberta wanted to speak to her alone. How're you holding up?"  
"Compared to Roza, I'm fine."  
"You're allowed to be not fine, you know." He said, his blue eyes meeting mine.  
"Where are her parents?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.  
"The bossy nurse came to speak to them. They've gone to the nurses' lounge."  
"Would you mind sitting with Rose until they've finished? I need some air."  
"Sure. Take your time." He said and went to Roza's room.  
I stood up and left the hospital, heading straight to the church. I wasn't a particularly religious man but Mama had insisted that my sisters and I accompanied her to church every Sunday. I'd always gone with Ivan on the rare occasion that he went and I'd gone every Sunday at St Vladimir's. After I'd been restored, I'd spent most of my time in there; though that was more to prove that I was no longer strigoi than anything else. The church had been the place that I'd broken Roza's heart and I hadn't been back since we'd returned to Court unless it was as a guardian. Still, I went there looking for answers.

The church was empty, except for the priest who was putting bibles on the pews. He turned to me when the doors closed and welcomed me before going back to his task. I sat in the back, not wanting to disturb him, and thought of my Roza.  
Rosemarie Hathaway had always been a force to be reckoned with. She'd been fierce when I'd first met her, defending Vasilisa like any guardian would do even though she was only a novice. An untrained novice at that. She'd been a quick study when I'd taken her back to the academy, learning more in our sessions than I thought possible and quickly caught up to the rest of the students. She made her first strigoi kills with a sword that hadn't been sharpened in more than a hundred years and she flew through her final exams and earned her promise mark. She was exceptional then and had continued to be through the rest of her career.  
Seeing her now, she could have been a completely different person. She was quiet and withdrawn. She barely made eye contact with anyone and she flinched whenever someone got too close to her. She'd lost the fight that had always drawn me to her and I had no idea how to help her.  
"Are you okay, Guardian Belikov?"  
I looked up at the person who had intruded on my thoughts and saw that the priest had come to sit beside me. He was an elderly man, probably in his early sixties, with white hair and kind eyes.  
"Yes, thank you Father."  
"People who come here when there isn't a service are usually not okay. Would you like to talk about it?" He asked kindly.  
"It's not for me to talk about." I said.  
"Ah, so it's someone else that is not okay?" I nodded and he smiled. "You're here because you're worried about someone?"  
"My... Rose."  
"Rose Hathaway?" He asked and then nodded. "That makes sense. I heard that she'd left Court. I've missed her these last few Sundays."  
"She's back now. She's in the hospital."  
"Then why aren't you with her?" He asked.  
"I don't know if I can help her."  
"Surely just being there is help enough?"  
"I don't think that it is. She's been through a lot since she left." I said, fighting the lump that formed in my throat. "I need to find a way to help her."  
"I could try and help you, if you tell me what she's been through."  
So, I did. I told him about Roza going missing after the party and then Adrian finding her. I told him about the DVD and everything that had happened since. He listened patiently, his face betraying nothing.  
"My little sister was raped once. She was only fifteen at the time." He said quietly. "She'd been with someone that was supposed to be her friend. My mother took her out of the academy and home schooled her instead."  
"How was she?"  
"She was scared. She thought that he'd find her or that any man she allowed near her would hurt her. She wouldn't let my father or I anywhere near her. If we came in to a room, she would leave it. We tried to help her but nothing that we tried worked. She'd wake up in the night screaming. She took her life when she was seventeen and couldn't live with the dreams any more." He looked sad but then smiled at me. "She wasn't as strong as Rose though."  
"I'm afraid that I'll lose her." I said.  
"Unfortunately, this is Rose's path to walk down. She had to find her own way through this. You can be there for her but only Rose can deal with what she went through."  
I nodded, knowing that he was right. "Do you believe that everything happens for a reason?"  
"No. I may be a man of God but I don't believe that everything that happens in the world, happens for a reason. I believe that God loves each of us but ultimately, he can't have a plan for everyone in the world. There are over seven-billion humans out there, never mind our kind as well. I believe that God does his best."  
"What about your sister?" I asked. "Did you blame God?"  
"No. I blamed the so-called friend that raped her. For a while, I blamed my sister for not being strong enough, but I know now that that wasn't the case. She tried for two years to recover from her trauma but it was too much for her. She's in God's hands now and he'll take care of her."  
"You don't think that she's in hell?" I asked and then regretted my question instantly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"  
"Don't be sorry, Guardian Belikov. It's a valid question. As a man of God, of religion, do I believe that she's burning in hell for all of eternity because she took her own life? No, I don't. I don't believe that any one who takes their own life is destined for hell. People have their own reasons for doing the things that they do and I'm sure that God understands that."  
"I hope so."  
"What do you believe, Guardian Belikov?"  
"Honestly, I don't know. I'm not a religious man, though my mother tried her best to raise me to be one. I find it hard to believe in a God would allow such horrible things to happen in this world, especially to good people."  
"I like to think that God tries his best but like a mother with twelve children, it's hard to keep on top of them all at once." He said with a small smile. "With the right support, Rose will come out of this and she may even be stronger than before. Before I came to Court, I was at a small Academy in Romania. There was a girl there that had through something similar to Rose, though it was far less traumatic. She'd been to a party in one of her friend's dorm. She'd gone because her friend had asked her too but she'd made sure that she didn't drink any alcohol. She'd tried her best to be sensible but that didn't save her. Someone had put something in her drink and she was a victim any way. I worked with her for a while when her family found out. They thought that God could help her but in the end, all she needed was someone to listen to her and understand how she was feeling. She went on to get married and she has three children now. She send me a card every year at Christmas."  
"That's nice."  
"Yes and I'm glad to receive every one of them. It means that I helped her in a way that no one else could. You can do the same for Rose, Guardian Belikov, but I can't tell you how to do that." He said and rested his hand on my shoulder. "She may need you to talk or she may need you to give her some space. I can't tell you what it is that you should do."  
He stood up and walked away from me, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

An hour or so later, Adrian came rushing in to the church. "She's gone. Rose is gone."  
"Gone where?" I stood up and went to him.  
"I don't know. Christian was with her but he got called to Liss and then Abe was with her. By the time the nurse went to check on her, she was gone. We've looked everywhere for her."


	18. Chapter 18

Rose POV

When I came out of the bathroom, Christian had been sitting in the chair waiting for me. Dimitri was nowhere to be seen but I hadn't been surprised. The look on his face when he'd seen my body had one of horror.  
"Is it your turn to babysit me?" I asked Christian.  
"I'm not here to babysit you, Rose. I just wanted to see how you're doing." He said with a smile. It was strange to talk to Christian without him saying something sarcastic.  
"I'm doing great." I said. "Where's Liss?"  
"She was here for a while, waiting to see you, but then Alberta needed her for something. She'll be back later."  
I nodded and then sat on the edge of bed facing him. We sat in silence for a moment until I spoke. "So, I hear that you and Adrian really saved the day. Thanks."  
"You're welcome, Rose. I'm just sorry that we didn't get there sooner." He said. His blue eyes were filled with sadness and I searched for something to say that would cheer him up but I couldn't find anything.  
"Don't worry about it. It's not your fault." I said.  
I couldn't help but feel like they all needed my reassurance that I didn't blame. I didn't blame any of them. I didn't even blame Abe. Sure, he was the reason that I'd left the party and been on my own when I was taken and the reason that Nathan had wanted me in the first place... but I didn't blame him. I didn't blame Dimitri.  
I blamed myself. If I hadn't been so upset, I would have noticed that someone was there. If I'd have fought harder, Nathan wouldn't have been able to do the things that he'd done to me. If I'd have been stronger, he wouldn't have been able to feed off me or starve me or keep me locked in a room for a week and a half.  
If it was anyone's fault, it was mine. My life had spiralled out of control ever since Tasha had framed me for Tatiana's murder and I was desperate to get some control back. Of course, I had no idea how I was going to do that.  
"Do you need anything?" Christian asked.  
"I'm fine." I smiled at him, though it was forced.  
"Liss was really worried about you when you were gone. She couldn't sleep and barely ate anything."  
"Oh."  
"Sorry, I didn't mean to... I didn't say that to make you feel guilty. I just wanted you to know that she loves you, no matter what. We all do." He said.  
"I know."  
There was a light knock on the door and a guardian poked his head inside. It was Gavin, one of the other guardians that were on Lissa's service. He was on the opposite shift to me, so I'd never had much to do with him but he seemed decent enough. Dimitri trusted him and that was enough for me. He had sandy blonde hair that had been shaved really short on the sides and was longer on top, which he usually tied up in to a sort mini bun when he was on duty.  
"I'm sorry to interrupt you, Lord Ozera but the Queen requests your presence." He said.  
"Is she all right?" I asked.  
"She's fine, Guardian Hathaway." He said without even looking at me.  
"I'll be there in a minute." Christian said. He obviously had more to say to me but I didn't want to hear it.  
"It's fine, Christian. Go to Liss. I'll see you guys later. I'm tired any way."  
"Are you sure?"  
I nodded and gave him a small smile. "It's fine. Liss needs you more than I do right now."  
"We'll come back later." He promised and then followed Gavin out of the room.  
I laid back on the bed and closed my eyes when I heard the door shut. "I will kick you out of this room if you don't go to her." I said without openening my eyes.  
"Go to whom?"  
I opened my eyes at the sound of Abe's voice. "I thought you were Christian."  
"No, he's following a blonde person with a ridiculous bun on his head."  
"That's Gavin. And you're not one to talk on fashion choices." I said. Abe usually wore obscenely bright colour ties and pocket squares with his black suits and shirts. Today was different though. He wore black trousers and a black suit but there was no tie or pocket square. "Are you all right, old man?"  
"May I?" He asked, holding his hand out to the chair. I nodded and he sat down. "How're you doing, Kiz?"  
"Better. How're you doing? You look awful."  
"I feel awful." He reached out for my hand but seemed to think better of it. "I'm sorry, Rose. I didn't mean what I said to you the night of the party."  
"I know."  
"I was angry. I didn't mean what I said." He said as if he hadn't heard me.  
"Abe, Dad. It's okay." I said.  
"No, it isn't." He said quietly.  
He looked truly awful and I wondered if that was all he'd thought about whilst I'd been gone. Those last words playing in his mind over and over again. I tried to find something to say to him, something that would ease his guilt but I couldn't. I knew that saying 'don't worry about it' wouldn't quite cover it with him. There was nothing that I could say, so I didn't say anything. After a while, he stood up and left my room without saying goodbye. I wanted to go after him but i knew that it wouldn't do either of us any good. He needed time to forgive himself. Instead, I closed my eyes again, desperate for some sleep.

I groaned when someone else knocked on the door. What would it take to get some peace around here.  
"Rose? Are you awake?"  
I opened one eye and saw Sydney Sage standing in the doorway with a small bunch of flowers in her hand. "No." I mumbled and closed my eyes again.  
"I'd ask if you were all right but I know that you're not." She said quietly. There was something in her tone, something that said she actually did know. I opened my eyes again and stared at her. She sat down in the chair and handed the flowers to me. "Not me. My sister. They're peonies. I didn't know what kind of flowers you liked and peonies are my favourite so I bought those."  
"Thanks. No one else got me flowers." I said and inhaled their scent.  
"I didn't know if I should or not but my mother always said that grapes were boring." She said with a small shrug.  
"I don't like grapes, too healthy."  
"I debated bringing you a burger but I wasn't sure whether you'd be allowed food or not."  
"I haven't actually had anything yet, so I'm guessing not."  
"It's just as well I didn't bring one then." She said and took the flowers back. She went to the bathroom sink and filled a jug with water, putting the pink peonies in it before setting it down on my night stand. "How're you feeling, Rose?"  
"I've been better." I said, surprised that it was so easy to tell Sydney the truth.  
"Abe told me happened between the two of you on the night that you were taken. He didn't mean what he said."  
"I know."  
"He feels awful about it."  
"I know. I don't understand why he said it, but I know that he didn't mean it."  
"He was protecting me." She said.  
Abe protecting someone other than himself or his family seemed like an impossibilty, but I could see in her eyes that it was true. "Why?"  
"Because I did something terrible. Well, actually, I got him to do something terrible for me."  
"Something terrible enough to make you run away with two dhampir fugitives and save his daughter's life?"  
"Yes. I asked him to arrange a strigoi attack on the man that raped my sister." She said without a hint of regret. "He staged a strigoi attack and Keith lost an eye. They weren't actual strigoi, but he didn't know that. He still doesn't."  
"Why would you do that?" I asked.  
"Because she's my sister. He told her whilst he was doing it that it was her fault because he'd never been able to take his eyes off of her. I figured that losing an eye might help him keep it off of other women." She said with a small smile. "Abe was protecting me by not telling you because if the Alchemists found out, they'd do worse to me."  
"She didn't tell them?"  
"No. She told me and made me swear not to tell anyone. I had to tell Abe so that he'd do as I'd asked and now I'm telling you. Otherwise, I haven't told a soul." She said. "Plus, she isn't an Alchemist. Our mom managed to keep her out of it. I was the first of the Sage girls to be enlisted."  
"What did she do? After?"  
"She ran away." Sydney said sadly. "She couldn't stand to be around anything that had been associated with Keith, which included the alchemists. She changed the way she looked. She got a nose ring and cut her hair off, though it does suit her. She's looks like a punk rock pixie."  
I smiled, more at Sydney's affectionate tone than the image of an older Sydney with short hair, a nose ring and dark eyeliner. "You still love her."  
"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" Sydney asked and then understanding dawned in her warm brown eyes. "Oh, Rose."  
I sniffed and blinked the tears that threatened to fall away. "I'm sorry. I'm just, I'm just tired. And hungry. And I hate being cooped up." I said.  
"Then let's go out for a while. Some fresh will probably do you good."  
"I've got no clothes here."  
"I'll find you something. I'll be back in a minute." She said and left my room.  
I went to the bathroom and when I came back out Sydney was standing by them bed. She held out a pile of blue fabric to me and smiled.  
"I don't suppose you ever wanted to be a doctor, did you?" She asked when I took them.  
"Not particularly." I unfolded the clothes and shook my head. "You got me scrubs?"  
"It's the best that I could do." She said with a small shrug. "Do you want to get out of here or not?"  
I nodded and put them back down on the bed, attempting to reach behind me so that I could undo the tie at the back of the hospital gown. Of course, I couldn't reach it. Sydney stepped forward with her hands out.  
"Here, let me help you." She said and undid the tie for me.  
"Thanks." I picked up the sky blue top and tried to get it on, but it hurt to lift my arms over my head. Again, Sydney stepped forward and helped me get it on and then bent down in front of me. I put one leg and then the other in the trousers and she pulled them up for me, tightening the draw-string so that they didn't fall down. She fished around in her bag and pulled out a hair tie and then braided my hair down my back for me.  
"Doctors don't leave their hair down. If you're going to blend, you might as well do it properly." She said with a smile and then took my arm, leading me out of the room. We managed to walk straight out of the hospital without anyone noticing us, which was amazing because it was relatively empty. There were a few guardians with training injuries and a couple of moroi kids that looked sick but otherwise it was empty. We walked for a while, stretching my legs out, before we ended up outside the gym.  
We went inside and Sydney helped me to get upstairs to the balcony. It was where the guardians watched others train. Seeing as I couldn't be down there with them, I'd have to settle for watching. Thankfully, the gym was relatively quiet and no one paid that much attention to me as we went inside. A few nodded as we passed but that was all, which meant that none of them would tell Dimitri that I was there.

"In ancient Rome, if a man was found guilty of rape then he'd have his testicles crushed between two stones." Sydney said.  
"It's a shame that they don't still do that."  
"It's thought of as inhumane now. I'd love to know what they think rape is. I looked in to the statistics after my sister. They aren't really accurate because so many rapes go unreported to the proper authorities and they're really only the human statistics. It's impossible to know how many men and women are affected by sexual violence worldwide. It's a lot though."  
"What do people do? Afterwards I mean."  
"I don't know. When it was Carly, she went straight in the shower and scrubbed herself raw. Then she left. Others report it and go to trial in an attempt to get their attacker sentenced but that rarely happens. Others pretend that nothing happened."  
"It's kind of hard to do that when everyone's seen it happen."  
"Rose, I know that I don't know you well enough to really have any right to say this, but that wouldn't work for you."  
"Why not?"  
"Because you're you. You face a problem head on, you don't stop until you get the outcome that you want. You're Rose Hathaway. And Rose Hathaway doesn't live in a pretend world where everything is made up rainbows and unicorns."  
"Honestly, I'd rather take the rainbows and unicorns." I said.  
"Maybe you could talk to someone about what happened to you."  
"Like a therapist?"  
"It doesn't have to be a therapist, just someone that you trust."  
"The people that I trust don't need to hear it. Liss isn't strong enough. Dimitri..." I shook my head. I couldn't find the right words to explain why I couldn't talk to Dimitri about it. I loved him but it was bad enough that he'd seen it, never mind hearing the rest of it.  
"You could talk to me, if you wanted." Sydney said. "You don't have to, but if there's no one else then I'm here."  
"Thanks."  
"Any time." She said and then turned to watch the guardians train.  
We sat in a comfortable silence for a while before I found the courage to speak.  
"I'm exhausted but I don't want to sleep."  
"Why?"  
"I had a dream. It was more of a nightmare. Nathan, the one that... He was there. He'd pulled me in to a spirit dream but I don't know if it was real or not. If it wasn't then I'm going crazy and if it was then I'm still not safe. Things are so real in a spirit dream. Adrian used to visit me a lot when we were together and it was so..." It was hard to explain a spirit dream to someone that hadn't been in one. Everything was so real, as if it were actually happening.  
"So what are you going to do? You have to sleep, Rose."  
"I don't know. Get some of those drugs that stop you sleeping like they had in Elm Street."  
"What?"  
"You know the film? Freddy Krueger kills people in their dreams so they give the kids a drug that stops them from dreaming. That way they're safe."  
"I've never seen it."  
"It's good, if you like that kind of thing." I said. "I used to. I don't know that I'd be able to watch it now."  
"Why not?"  
"It's too real now. The dreams, the blood, the monsters. It's different when you've experienced something similar."  
"I suppose it would be. A little like dogs."  
"Dogs?"  
"You know, when someone has been bitten by a dog and then they have a fear of all dogs. Even the tiny ones. You've been bitten by one dog and then you're scared that all dogs will bite you."  
"Is it stupid to be afraid of the dog though?"  
"Yes and no. It's stupid to be scared of all dogs but it's not stupid to be cautious around them."  
The doors to the gym burst open and Dimitri was standing there in all of his godliness. "Rose?" He called my name, his eyes scanning every face in the gym frantically. "Roza?"  
All of the guardians stopped what they were doing to look at him and I just wanted to hide somewhere.  
"She's on the balcony." One of them said and Dimitri looked up at me.  
I saw him relax slightly before he sprinted up the stairs to me. He grabbed my face between his hands and rested his forehead against mine. "I thought I'd lost you again." He whispered fiercely.  
"I'm right here, Dimitri." I said, placing my hands over his.  
"You were gone. You left without a word to anyone."  
"I didn't leave alone. I've been with Sydney."  
"You should be in the hospital, Roza. You need to heal."  
I took Dimitri's hands from my face and stepped back from him, trying not to notice the hurt in his eyes. "I can't stay cooped up in there, it's driving me crazy. I didn't train, we just sat up here and talked."  
"It's my fault." Sydney said, coming to stand at the side of us. "I hate hospitals. The smell. We should probably get you back though."  
I nodded and followed her downstairs, Dimitri following behind me. Of course, thanks to the spectacle that Dimitri caused when he came in, every guardian in the place was looking at me and they were whispering to each other. I tried to ignore them but I coudln't. I wanted to know what they were saying about me but when I tried to turn around, Dimitri put his hand on my shoulder and kept me moving forward.

Three days later, they released me from the hospital. I wasn't put on bed rest this time but I was told that I had to take it easy until my back was completely healed. I went home with Dimitri and let him fuss over me for a while. Liss and Christian came over for dinner and Liss showed me all of the things that she'd bought me.  
She'd replaced everything that had been taken from the apartment when I'd been taken, even down to the toiletries. She'd organised everything in to bags so that it would be easier for me to put away. Dimitri took them in to the bedroom and laid them on the bed, telling me to leave them until later because my friends were here to welcome me home and I should enjoy it.  
Liss had come to visit me in the hospital, crying and shaking and apologising over and over again as if it were somehow her fault. Christian had had to carry her out in the end because she was adamant that she wasn't leaving me alone. It was sweet of her but all I'd wanted to do was sleep or eat my body weight in anything that wasn't lukewarm hospital food, which was why they'd come over with pizza that night.  
When we'd finished eating, Christian and Dimitri excused themselves in to the kitchen to talk about something that I probably wasn't supposed to know about, leaving Liss and I alone. She started to tell me about her plan for the wedding and I tried my best to be excited for her.  
"You're going to be my maid of honour and Dimitri is going to be the best man. Sonya and Jill are going to be my bridesmaids and I was thinking having you all in different shades of pink. Or maybe purple. Or turquoise. I haven't quite decided yet. I've seen some really lovely dresses online that you'd all look great in. The flowers are going to be white roses and there's going to be fairy lights everywhere."  
"It sounds great." I said, forcing a smile.  
"You're going to have to give a speech."  
"What?"  
"You're my maid of honour. You have to give a speech about us. You and me that is."  
"I don't know that I'm the right person for that, Liss." I said, trying to find a way to explain that I wasn't comfortable with that many people looking at me.  
"But you're my best friend."  
"I know but-"  
"And it's my wedding."  
"I know, Liss, but things are-"  
"I'd do it for you."  
"I know you would but it's not that simple."  
"It is that simple. You said that you'd be my maid of honour at the party."  
"A lot happened that night, Liss. I don't want to stand up in a room full of people and give a speech." I snapped and regretted it instantly. "I'm sorry."  
Liss looked at me as if she didn't know who I was. Her eyes were wide and glittered as they filled with tears. "Don't you want me to marry him?"  
"Of course I do. I wouldn't have helped him pick the ring if I didn't want you to marry him. I'm happy for you, Liss."  
"Just not happy enough to be my maid of honour." She said and stood up, her blonde hair fanning out behind as she spun around. She stalked in to the kitchen angrily and came out a moment later with Christian.  
"Bye, Rose." Christian called as Liss dragged him out of the apartment.  
"See you later." I gave him a small wave and then retreated to the bedroom.

* * *

 **Note-**

 **Guest** : You reviewed on chapter 10, which I appreciate. All I can say if you've made it this far then you know that it got way darker than it was. Any way, you brought up some good points and I feel like I should address them. You're right, I hadn't rated the story as an 'M' when I started it because I hadn't intended on it going in this direction. I did write a warning as you suggested at the start of chapter 11, though to be fair that might have been a little late. I have every intention of going back and changing the rating but honestly, it seems to escape my mind between the cries for more updates and my busy life. Before I posted this chapter, I changed the rating to M.  
I completely agree that the themes in this story could be traumatising to readers but I assure you that's far more traumatising to experience even a fraction of what Rose is going through. I apologise if I've offended/traumatised you in any way and I will take your review in to consideration when I continue to update.

 **Alexlc** : I find them comforting too, which I suppose is why my crazy brain took me there. I'd originally intended for there to be a few attempts on Rose's life to get to Abe but I suddenly found in her current situation. I'm glad that it's brought you some comfort and if nothing else, you know that you're not alone. If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm only a PM away. Sometimes talking to a total stranger helps a little.

 **Buffy86** : I'm sorry! I can't help myself. I love a good cliffhanger. Rose has just told Sydney about the spirit dream and it will lead places, I promise. Thank you for all of your reviews, you're the reason that I keep writing.

 **FanOfTheWrittenArt** : I'm truly honoured that you chose my story to review. Please keep them coming.

For everyone else, I appreciate you reading this and all of the reviews that I get. If there's anything that you don't like or don't agree with, please let me know. I honestly not trying to offend or traumatise anyone but I think that I need to stick with this story and let it play out. I don't actually know how it's going to end yet. If there's anything that you think I'm missing or that you'd like to happen, apart from the obvious of Nathan dying, either drop me a PM or a review and I'll do my best to include it.


	19. Chapter 19

Rose POV

I'd shut myself in the bedroom when Liss and Christian had left but I couldn't settle. I paced back and forth, seething that Liss could be so selfish. She didn't understand what I was going through or how I felt. She didn't care about anything other than herself or her precious wedding. I could feel heart rate increasing as I thought about what she'd said to me and I knew that I had to calm down. I took a deep breath and looked over at the clock and saw that it was only 2am. I had plenty of time before sunrise and I needed to get out.  
I felt bad for a moment and as I slipped my boots on because I knew that Dimitri would worry about me and I didn't want that. I just needed some time to be able to get the anger out of my system before I snapped and I didn't want to snap at him. He'd tried his best to be comforting and he'd been giving me plenty of space and he deserve to be the one that I took my anger out on.  
I opened the bedroom door slowly and peeked in to the hall. Dimitri wasn't there. He wasn't sitting outside the bedroom door like I'd expected him to be. He wasn't in the living room either, which meant that he was probably still in the kitchen. I tiptoed across the living room carpet and snook out of the door before he even knew that I was there. I'd grabbed my key and my purse off the small table by the door before I left, just in case I needed them.  
I nodded to Gavin and Simon as I passed them but didn't stop to talk to them. They'd probably go and check with Dimitri that I was allowed to be out but by then it would be too late. He wouldn't know where to find me because I didn't know where I was going myself. As long as I steered clear of the gym, I had some time before he came for me.  
I walked past the small row of shops in the centre of Court and ducked in to one quickly. I bought a bottle of vodka, the Russian kind that Dimitri sometimes drank, and then kept walking. I didn't realise that my feet knew where I needed to be until I was stood outside Adrian's door. Of course, going to Adrian's made sense. He was as messed up as I was, just in different ways. I rang the doorbell and the door opened almost immediately.  
"Ah, little dhampir. What a pleasant surprise."  
"Adrian."  
"Not that I'm not pleased to see you, but why are you here?"  
"I came for a drink."  
"You don't drink, little dhampir."  
"Tonight I do." I said, handing him the bottle. "Are you going to drink with me or not?"  
I could see him debating it and he must have decided that letting me drink with him was safer than letting me do it elsewhere. He invited me in and took me to the kitchen. He got two tumblers out and poured two hearty measures before sliding one across the breakfast bar to me.  
"Oh." A voice from behind me said. "I didn't realise that you had company."  
I turned around and saw Daniella Ivashkov, Adrian's mother, standing in the doorway.  
"Hi." I said quietly and picked my glass up and raising in towards in a 'cheers' motion.  
"Hello, Rosemarie. It's nice to see you looking so... well." She said. Her tone told me that she knew exactly what had happened to me and really wanted to say 'how nice to see you but I'm a little disappointed that you aren't still covered in bites and bruises or cowering in the corner'. She knew, just like the whole of Court probably did by now.  
I nodded, not trusting myself to answer her. I was having a particularly difficult time with biting my tongue. The only reason I managed to not snap at Daniella was because I was too busy drinking vodka that burned my throat on the way down. Adrian was right, I didn't drink. I'd dabbled at the academy and had a drink or two at parties but I wasn't the kind of girl that was used to drinking neat vodka.  
"Would you like to join us?" Adrian asked. "We're having vodka."  
"Has she eaten yet?" Daniella asked Adrian instead of me. "She's not a seasoned drinker like you are, Adrian. Make sure that she eats."  
"I will." He promised.  
"Good. I'm going out. I'll be back later." She said and then she was gone.  
We sat in silence as I finished one drink and handed Adrian my glass so that he could pour me another. I knocked that one back too, glad that the burning sensation was less intense the more I drank, and Adrian refilled the glass and pulled out his phone.  
"Are you calling my Russian jailer?" I asked, my speech already slurred. "I'm sure he'd love to come to my rescue again." I knew that I sounded bitter but at the moment, I didn't care.  
"No, I'm calling for pizza. Cheese or pepperoni?" He asked and then shook his head. "I forget who I'm talking to. Hello? Can I place an order please? One large four cheese and one large pepperoni please. Delivery. Adrian Ivashkov. Yes. Thanks."  
"Did you just order me two pizzas?"  
"Are you telling me that you can't eat two?"  
"Well, no but-"  
"Then say thank you, shut up and eat them when they get here. Unless you want to be cleaning your own vomit up in the morning."  
"Not particularly."  
He nodded once. "That's settled then. Are you going to tell me why you're really here or am I supposed to guess?"  
"I didn't know where else to go." I said with a shrug.  
"Oh please, little dhampir. What you mean is I'm the only one that doesn't treat you like Grandma's china teapot that's being held together with glue and you know that they mean well but you can't take it any more because you're not as damaged as they think you are." He looked at me for a moment. "Or you're afraid that you are as broken as they think you are and you don't want to be around them when you shatter."  
"How did you know?" I asked, amazed that he understood. "Was it in my aura?"  
"No, aura's don't tell me what a person is thinking. I'm the one that disgraces the Ivashkov name with my spirit induced craziness, remember? I know what it's like when people walk on egg shells around you, afraid that they'll say or do something that'll set you off."  
I smiled at him and handed him my glass. "So what do you do to escape it?"  
"I drink, I smoke, I party and I sleep with as many people as possible."  
"Why?"  
"Because everyone is addicted to something that numbs their pain, Rose. Whether it's numbing it completely or replaced the pain with a different sensation." He placed his hand over mine gently. "You just have to find what numbs yours."

Fifteen minutes later there was a knock on the door and Adrian came back from answering it with two large pizza boxes.  
He set them down on the counter and opened them with a flourish. "Dig in."  
I wasted no time, devouring two slices of pepperoni before coming up for air. "Oh my God. This is amazing."  
"Judging by the look on your face, you've just found your thing." He said, watching me intently. "This is the happiest I've seen you in weeks."  
I bit in to another slice, the stringy cheese breaking off and dangling down my chin. I licked it up and smiled. "Don't judge me." I said with my mouth full.  
"Never." He promised and I knew that he wouldn't.  
"You're the only one." I said after I'd swallowed. "Dimitri invited Liss and Christian over for dinner."  
"How did that go?"  
"They brought pizza. It wasn't as nice as yours."  
"That's because I didn't make it myself. I'm assuming that it didn't go well, seeing as you're here."  
"Liss asked me to be her maid of honour before... everything. Tonight she told me that I need to make a speech." I took another bite of pizza before I continued. "Which would have been fine two weeks ago."  
"And now?"  
"And now I can barely stand to be around anyone, never mind being in a room full of people in a pink or purple or turquoise dress, making a speech about how happy I am for them."  
"Aren't you?"  
"Yes but that isn't the point. I don't want to be with people. I don't want to make small talk or smile or stand around in a pastel coloured dress and pose for photographs with a smile on my face when I all I want to do is scream."  
"Did you tell her that?"  
"I tried but she turned it in to how she'd do it for me and obviously I wasn't happy enough for her or I'd do it."  
"So you didn't actually tell her about the people and the screaming?"  
"No."  
"Did you tell her about... your time away from Court?"  
"No. Dimitri said that she knows that I was taken and held but nothing else. I assumed that someone would have told her."  
"Rose, if they've have told then she wouldn't be so insensitive to what you're going through. She's probably trying to cheer you up but doesn't understand that it's more complex than that. If you tell her, she'll get it."  
"Do you think so?"  
"She's your best friend. She'll understand. You just have to give her the chance to." He said and then stood up and took the bottle away.  
"What are you doing with that?"  
"With the amount of cheese that you've just consumed, you don't want any more of this. You'll be thanking me tomorrow. Plus, you're getting angry and I don't want to get my ass kicked."  
"I'm in no place to be kicking any asses, Adrian. You're okay."  
"Are you, though?" He asked, tilting his head to the right slightly as he regarded me. "There's fear in your aura."  
"I'm fine."  
"Your aura tells me otherwise."  
"I'm just tired. I've been having these dreams. It's nothing."  
"If it's bothering you then it's something. Tell me about it." He said, sitting back down and pouring me another drink.


	20. Chapter 20

Dimitri POV

Roza had left the apartment at some point between Vasilisa leaving and when I'd finished the dishes. I'd gone in to the living room but she wasn't there. The bathroom was empty and so was the bedroom. She hadn't left me a note either. I was stuck between being angry and worrying about her. I was trying my best to help her, to support her and to be there when she needed me and yet she'd done nothing but push me away. I tried to understand but I couldn't shake the feeling that she was scared of me. I pulled out my phone to call Janene and ask if she knew where Roza was, when I noticed a message from Adrian.  
 _Rose is with me. She's drinking but I'll keep an eye on her and make sure that she eats. I'll call you if she needs you. Don't worry she's safe with me. A  
_ I breathed a sigh of relief. I'd been worried about Roza ever since we'd brought her back to Court. She wouldn't talk to me or Vasilisa or her mother about her experience. She seemed to be isolating herself from everyone but I couldn't work out why. She'd been through something traumatic but we were just trying to help her. And now she'd started drinking. Plus, there was the fall out with the royal moroi because Vasilisa had taken their guardians from them on the night that we rescued Roza, essentially leaving them unprotected. They were furious, even though they'd been safe enough behind Court's wards – especially since Vasilisa had modified them to not only contain the four elements but spirit as well. No human would be able to take down the wards unless they had a stake that was infused with spirit. Still, the royal moroi believed that their lives were more important than that of a guardian and were angry with Vasilisa for potentially compromising their safety. They'd made threats against Jill Mastrano, Vasilisa's half-sister, knowing that without a living family member she would lose her throne.  
We hadn't told Roza about it because we knew that she needed to distance herself from everyone else's problems for a while so that she could focus on herself. She needed to heal, both physically and emotionally. We also hadn't told Vasilisa the full extent of Roza's trauma, believing that it would be better coming from Roza herself. We didn't want to upset Vasilisa unnecessarily, especially with the darkness no longer being absorbed through the bond. Plus, Roza had to tell her when she was ready. We knew what had happened because we'd seen it both on the DVD and when we'd rescued her from the hotel.  
I typed a message to Adrian and hit send before sitting on the edge of our bed. The things that Vasilisa had brought for Roza were still in paper bags on the bed, so I started to put them away for her. I knew where everything lived seeing as I was the one that usually put things away. Roza had never been one for cleaning but since we'd moved in to the apartment, she'd been in no shape to do any. She'd gone from being shot to being on bed rest and then she got poisoned. She'd started to get better again and resume her training when she'd been taken. I wondered if her life would ever resemble that of an ordinary person; peaceful and quiet. Knowing my Roza, the answer was a definite no.  
My phone chimed as another text message came through.  
 _She's fine. I've switched her to soda. She needed someone to talk to. I'll bring her home soon. A.  
_ I didn't know whether or not I should be relieved. I was glad that she was talking to someone but I was also a little offended that it wasn't me. I'd always been there for Roza, always waiting for her to come to me when she was ready but this time, she'd gone to Adrian. Perhaps it was because deep down she blamed me for what had happened, just like I blamed myself. She would have been safe if I'd been with her, if I'd taken her home like I'd planned to.  
When Eddie Castile had found out what had happened to Roza, he'd been furious. He was angry with me for not taking him with me when we went to the hotel, and even angrier for taking Adrian and Christian. He'd wanted to go to Roza, but she wasn't ready.  
Roza and Eddie had formed an incredibly close friendship after their time in Spokane. Their friend, Mason, had died and they both felt guilty in their own ways. The strigoi that had held them had used Eddie as a feeder, keeping him docile and making sure that he wasn't a threat whilst Roza had been the strong one. She'd made sure that they made it out of there alive and they all would have, if Mason hadn't have gone back. However, if he hadn't, I wasn't sure that Roza would have lived.  
Ever since then, they'd looked after each other with no questions asked. Roza wanted ready to see anyone after we'd brought her back to Court, so instead I'd asked Eddie to something for me. Roza had needed me to be with her, or at least, I thought she did. So, Eddie was out there doing what I should have been doing. He was finding Nathan. He was under strict instruction not to engage with him but to call me when he'd found him. That had been five days ago and I hadn't heard from him since he'd left.  
I pulled out my phone and dialled his number but it just rang until it went to voicemail. I left him a message asking him to call me and then hung up. I hadn't even put my phone down before I rang again. Adrian's name lit the screen up and I answered it quickly.  
"Belikov." I said.  
" _Sydney left me her number before she left, just in case I wanted to talk to her. She sort of understands_." It was Roza's voice that I could hear. Her words were slurred and I knew that she wasn't talking to me. Adrian had called me so that I could listen in on their conversation and I knew that Roza would be furious if she knew. Still, I couldn't help but listen.  
" _She does_?" Adrian asked.  
" _Not personally but her sister, Carly, went through something similar_."  
" _Will you talk to her?_ "  
" _I don't know. I like her but I don't know her well enough to talk to about this. And the people that I do know well enough_ ," She sighed. " _I don't want them to know._ "  
" _You have to talk to someone._ "  
" _I know. I told her about the dream though._ "  
" _What dream?_ "  
" _The spirit dream._ " Roza said, her voice tight. " _I had a dream when I was in the hospital. Nathan had found a spirit user that brought him to me in a dream. I didn't see anyone else there though, so I'm not sure if it was real or not. It felt real though, like when you do it._ "  
" _It's possible that it was real. Someone could have hidden themselves from you. It depends who had control of the dream._ " Adrian said, sounding worried.  
I knew what it meant if Nathan had found a spirit user. Humans worked with strigoi because they wanted to be immortal or young and beautiful forever. Moroi turned themselves voluntarily, with more spirit users doing so than anyone else. It was because of the madness and the things that it made them do. Sonya Karp had done it and it wouldn't be hard to find someone that would want to do the same. If Nathan had found someone, it meant that Roza wasn't safe even whilst she slept.  
" _Do you really think it could have been real?_ " She asked.  
" _I think that you went through something unimaginable and that you're scared. It makes sense that you'd dream about him._ " Adrian said. " _Have you had any more since that one?_ "  
" _No._ "  
I breathed a sigh of relief. If it was just the one dream then it was likely that it was just a dream and not a spirit dream.  
" _Then I think that you're probably okay. I can visit you though, if you'd like. You can't pull someone in to a spirit dream if they're already in one._ "  
" _Thanks._ "  
" _Are you going to tell Belikov?_ " _  
_ _ **"**_ _Would it kill you to call him Dimitri?_ " _  
_" _Possibly, so I'd better not risk it._ "  
" _Why don't you like him?_ " _  
_" _It's not that I don't like him. He's fine. He's a good guardian and I know that he'd never let anything happen to you if he had a choice. I mean, if the guy had been quicker, it would have been him that got shot instead of you. Everyone thinks that he dived in to save Liss, but we both know that he was diving to save you. He loves you, but he also hurt you. I was there when he was strigoi and was tracking you through Las Vegas. I was there when he was restored and he pushed you away. He hurt you and if I thought that I stood a chance against him, I'd kick his ass for you because you didn't deserve it. And if he ever hurts you again, I'd give it everything I've got. But he loves you. Every time that you get hurt, he hurts. He was falling apart when you were shot and when you were poisoned. When you were missing, he was a mess. He didn't sleep, he didn't shave... And then we got the message. I've never seen that man cry, Rose, but he cried over you."  
_ " _Is that supposed to make me feel better?"  
"No, it's supposed to tell you that he loves you. He was willing to sacrifice every guardian that was at that hotel to get to you and he would have sacrificed Christian and I too. There's nothing that you could say to him that would make him love you any less."  
_" _Really? So if I told him everything that happened to me while I was there, he would still love me? If I told him that I prayed for him to find me, that I begged and pleaded in the darkness for him to be there? If I told him that Nathan did this to me because of him as well as Abe? Because Nathan was Galena's second in command until Dimitri turned up and ruined everything that he'd worked so hard for. Because he'd beaten him to a pulp when he'd offered to break my spirit for him so that I'd beg him to awaken me."_ Roza was almost shouting now and my heart broke for her. " _Nathan said something to me that I know that he should know, but I can't bring myself to tell him. The guilt will eat him alive and he doesn't deserve that. He said that Dimitri thought that he was incapable of love when he'd been a strigoi but he still loved me. He'd wanted me to choose him, to choose to be strigoi because he still loved me. He protected me from Nathan even when he was strigoi. He loved me the whole time and then when I saved him, he pushed me away because he couldn't forgive himself for what he'd done. If I told him that now, do you think that would help him? Do you think that he'd feel any better?"  
"I don't know."  
_" _Yes you do. You know him. You know that he'll feel guilty for wasting all of that time and he'll feel guilty for everything that he did when he was one of them. He'll hate himself all over again."  
_ " _You're saving him the pain."_ Adrian said simply. Of course she was. That was who she was, the kind of person that did anything that she could to save the people that she loved. She'd suffer alone if she had to, just to make sure that everyone else was all right. Whilst I loved her for it, I knew that it wasn't good for her.  
" _As much of it as I can. He'll blame himself for everything that happened since then and I can't let that happen."  
_ " _Maybe it will help both of you if he knows the truth."  
_ " _How?"  
"I don't know but-"  
_" _It won't help anyone, Adrian. He doesn't need to know."  
_ It was then that I hung up the phone. She was talking to Adrian about things that she didn't want me to know and I couldn't listen to it any more. I couldn't even begin to understand the true extent of what she'd been through but I hoped that she'd come to me when she was ready.  
The call had given me plenty to think about though.


	21. Chapter 21

Rose POV

It had been three weeks since since that night at Adrian's. He'd kept his word and hadn't told anyone what we'd spoken about. He'd also visited me every night in a spirit dream to make sure that I was okay. Every night he showed up just after I fell asleep and he stayed with me until it was time to wake up. It was nice to be around someone that understood how I felt, at least when it came to being crazy. Adrian's admission about being the family screw up and people walking on egg shells around him actually helped me. We didn't usually do much; we'd eat and watch movies or he'd take me out for food. I couldn't decide if it was something that he enjoyed or if he was trying to get the weight that I'd lost back on, but it didn't matter. I was glad just to be near him.  
It wasn't awkward with Adrian the way that it was with everyone else. He didn't ask me questions or look sad whenever I flinched away from him. He didn't judge me when I drank the fear away or cried for no reason. He held me when I needed him to and gave me space when I didn't. When I was too scared to fall asleep, all I had to do was call him and he'd come to me in a spirit dream so that no one else could. We'd spend the night playing stupid games or lying under a made up sky and watching the clouds, though Adrian did cheat; he'd make the clouds in to whatever shape he wanted them to be. Still, he made me feel better.  
Dimitri had been sleeping on the sofa in the living room. I'd told him that he didn't have to do that but I was secretly relieved. Not because I thought that he would hurt me but because in those few hours that I was alone, I could let down my defences and cry myself to sleep without having to worry. He'd gone with me to all of my follow up appointments at the hospital to make sure that my infection was under control, which it was. My back still wasn't properly healed so I couldn't go back to training, but it didn't matter. For the first time in my life I was glad that I didn't have anyone else to look after.  
As the days passed, things went back to some semblance of normal and I started to feel a little better. I was in less pain and I could finally sleep on my back, though it was still tender. I still wouldn't let anyone touch me, but I was allowing people to get closer to me.  
I'd called Sydney a few times and she always asked how I was doing and then she'd say 'Baby steps, Rose. That's all you can take'. She'd offered to introduce me to her sister or find me a meeting to attend for group support but so far, I'd told her that I wasn't ready. I hadn't told anyone the whole truth, not even Adrian, so I couldn't tell a room full of strangers. She said that she understood but deep down I knew that she didn't. It was something that could only be understood if it had been experienced first hand.  
I was thinking of Sydney whilst Adrian was out fetching food. He'd noticed that I wasn't putting any weight back on and had made it his mission to keep feeding me. He fed me at least four times a day; pizza, doughnuts, burgers. Whatever I wanted, he'd bring it to me. I was starting to feel guilty, like I was abusing his friendship or something but he kept assuring me that he didn't mind. He liked looking after me.

And then he asked me a question that I never thought he'd ask me. A question that I didn't want to answer.

"When was the last time that you and Dimtri had, uh, were, uh, intimate?" He asked, looking incredibly awkward.

It took me a while to answer him because I was so shocked by the question. It wasn't the kind of thing that Adrian and I talked about. We talked about Dimitri but we didn't talk about my sex life, or lack thereof. "Not since... Not since I've been back."

He nodded, a crease in his brows, and then he changed the subject completely. "What do you want to do today?"

"Uh, I don't know." I said quietly, wondering where the hell that had come from.

In the end, we decided to stay in seeing as it was raining outside. It was the heavy kind of rain that said a storm was to follow, the kind that I'd always loved. We put a movie on and ordered in, Chinese this time.


	22. Chapter 22

Dimitri POV

When Roza came home from Adrian's, she was in a strange mood. She was home earlier than usual and she barely looked at me. I'd asked her if everything was all right and she'd said that it was but there was something wrong with her.  
"Did Adrian do something to upset you?" I asked as she grabbed a can of soda from the fridge.  
"No."  
"Are you sure? Did he say something or-"  
"Yes, Dimitri. I'm sure. He didn't do or say anything." She snapped and then stormed off in to the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.  
I stared after her, wondering what I was supposed to do. Should I go after her or give her space? Should I call Adrian or Vasilisa to come and check on her? Should I leave until she's calmed down? It broke my heart that I didn't know what she needed any more. There had been a time where I'd known what my Roza needed before she did but that time seemed like a thousand years ago. Now, I didn't have a clue what she needed. Adrian however seemed to know exactly what she needed. They were spending more and more time together and I was concerned that his bad habits were influencing her. She'd come home drunk from Adrian's house more than once, and it wasn't always at night. She spent most of time away from Adrian asleep, and I knew that he was with her then too. I was left behind, racking my brain for a way to help her and always coming up empty handed. On the other hand, I knew where Nathan was. I knew where he was and I was going to kill him for what he'd done to her. To us.  
I made my bed on the sofa and turned the light off, reading my book by the dim light of the lamp on the small table next to the sofa. I'd been ready for an hour or so when I heard Roza screaming. The screams were blood curdling and I jumped up, racing to her. I leaned over her and shook her gently, calling her name but she couldn't hear me over the sound of her own screams.  
"Roza, please wake up. Roza."  
She woke up, sitting bolt up right as tears poured down her face. "Dimitri?"  
"I'm here, Roza. You're safe."  
She looked up at me through teary eyes and I couldn't tell if she was relieved or not. "Dimitri." She said on an outward breath, her muscles relaxing under my hands.  
"Are you all right?"  
She nodded and pulled away from me, so I let her go. She stood up and left our bedroom, walked in to the bathroom and shut the door. I sat on the end of the bed and waited for her to return. When she came back, her skin was damp and her eyes were bloodshot. She'd been crying, I was sure, but I knew better than to say anything about it. She'd changed her clothes as well, her T shirt and shorts were gone, replaced the Christmas pyjamas that I'd bought her last year. They were brushed cotton with tiny penguins in red scarves and winter hats with pompoms on.  
"Are you sure that you want to wear those?" I asked, worrying that she'd get too hot in the night.  
She nodded and finished buttoning the shirt up.  
"Wouldn't you rather wear the silk ones that Vasilisa bought you for your birthday? They'll be cooler for you." I said.  
"I'm fine, Dimitri. Stop worrying."  
"Did you have a nightmare?" I asked.  
She nodded. "It wasn't too bad. I think they're getting better."  
I knew that she was lying. Her screams were the same as they'd been since she came home. "Wasn't Adrian with you?"  
"No."  
"Why not? I thought he was-"  
"He's probably exhausted from being with me all the time. He needs a break." Roza said and then got back in to bed, bringing the covers right up to her chin.  
Clearly I was being dismissed, so I stood and made my way over to the door.  
"Wait." She said quickly. "You can stay, Dimitri."  
I turned around to face her, studying her face to make sure that she was sure. "Are you sure, Roza?"  
She nodded, biting her lip slightly. "Come to bed, Dimitri." She pulled the covers back for, so I slid in to bed beside her.  
I lay on my back, staring up at the ceiling, wondering what I should do. Should I hold her the way I used to or wait for her to make the first move? Leaving it up to Roza was obviously the right choice, so I stayed perfectly still and waited. And waited. And then I felt her move slightly, until her hand was touching mine. It was only the slightest of touches but it was the closest to her that I'd been in a long time. I'd missed her. It was then that I realised the purpose of the penguin pyjamas. She was deliberately trying to cover herself. She wanted me to be with her but she didn't want me to be able to touch her skin or at least any part other than her hand.  
I kept my hand where it was, though fighting the urge to hold her hand properly was difficult. My muscles were tense and starting to ache, but the heat from her skin was soothing. Being with my Roza, my wonderful Roza, was soothing. It was a big step for her, going from not allowing anyone to touch her to resting the side of her hand against mine. To anyone else, it wouldn't have been anything, but to me it was everything.  
"Goodnight, Dimitri." She whispered in to the darkness.  
"Goodnight, Roza."

Something was tickling my nose. I woke, still lying on my back, and realised that it was Roza's beautiful hair that was tickling my nose. And her head that was resting on my chest. And her arm that was draped over my chest. I breathed a sigh of relief, hoping and praying that Roza was finally ready to let me get close  
And that's when she started twitching in her sleep. Her face was no longer a picture of serenity as her brows creased and she started mumbling something incohearant. And then, she sat bolt up right, her eyes turned to me as if she wanted to kill me.  
She jumped out of bed and glared at me through teary eyes. "You son of a bitch."  
"What?" I asked, wondering what I could possibly have done when I'd only just woken up.  
"This is all your fault."  
"What is? Roza, what have I done?" I asked, getting out of bed and going to stand before her. I reached out for her but she stepped away from me until she bumped in to the night stand.  
"Don't touch me, Dimitri. You did this."  
"Did what, Roza? What did I do?"  
She shook her head and turned away from me, swiping the tears from her cheeks. She went to the wardrobe and pulled out a bag and then rammed clothes in to it. "I  
have to go."  
"Go where? Roza, you're making no sense." I said, coming behind her to take her bag. As soon as I touched her, she turned around and punched me in the face. "Roza!"  
She jabbed her finger in to my chest and snarled at me. "You just couldn't leave it alone, could you Dimitri? Everything always has to be about you and now he's gone. He's gone, Dimitri, and it's all your fault."  
"Who?" I asked as I grabbed her wrist to stop her from jabbing me. It was the wrong move as it only made her worse. She screamed and clawed at my face and chest with her free hand, desperately trying to free herself from my grip. I spun her around and pressed her back against my chest, crossing my arms over her front so that she couldn't herself or me.  
"Get off me. Don't fucking touch me." She said as she thrashed around, kicking her legs.  
I let go of her, knowing that it wouldn't get me anywhere and retreated to a safe distance. "What else happened to you, Roza?" I asked, knowing that she'd been through so much more than I was aware of.  
She shook her head and picked up her bag. "I have to go."  
"You can't leave, Roza. You need help."  
"No here can help me. I have to go. He needs me."  
"Who?"  
"Eddie. Nathan has Eddie." She said quietly and then walked out of the bedroom.  
I stared after her. She had to be wrong. "Roza!" I called after her and then went to find her. She was in the kitchen, opening a granola bar. "Roza-" I tried but she cut me off.  
"You don't understand, Dimitri. He's going to kill him and then he's going to come back for me any way. He said it. He said that he'd never let me leave him. I have to go. Dimitri, please. I have to go."  
"You're not leaving. Even if I have to tie you down to the bed, you're not leaving this room." I took a step towards her but she took one back, dropping her granola bar on the kitchen tiles, her eyes wide as if she were scared of me. I went to my original position and tried again. "Roza, I'm not going to hurt you."  
"I know." She said but didn't sound sure.  
"You're in no shape to be running off. You need more time to heal, to recover."  
"But Eddie-"  
"Eddie will be fine." I said soothingly. "I'll call Alberta and we'll send people to help him."  
"No one can help him. Only me. I have to save him."  
"We'll save him, Roza."  
"How? How will we save him when you're the one that sent him out there?" She spat, her eyes full of anger. "Eddie... Eddie isn't like us, Dimitri. He isn't a God like you and isn't as strong as I am. Was. As strong as I was."  
"You're still strong, Roza." I said, mentally begging her to believe me.


	23. Chapter 23

Rose POV

I nodded at Dimitri, resisiting the urge to tell him that he had no idea. He thought that I was still strong because I'd survived but I wasn't so sure that I had. Yes, I was walking and talking, eating, drinking. I was doing everything that other people do even though I wasn't like them. I was an empty shell of the person that I used to be. The person that had never been afraid of being around people. The person that had never been afraid of Dimitri, even when he'd been strigoi. I was a new Rose, but I had still parts of the old Rose in me. Like my plan making skills.  
A plan was already forming in my head as Dimitri and I stared at each other. I picked my granola bar up off the kitchen floor and threw it in the trash can before walking past Dimitri and heading in to the bedroom. I left the door open, knowing that Dimitri would be following me. He didn't though. I managed to get dressed, throw a few things in to a bag and hide it under the bed before he came to find me.  
"Vasilisa would like to see you, Roza." He said from the doorway, holding his phone in his hand.  
"Is she all right?" I asked. The last thing I needed was for Liss to have a spirit induced break down.  
"As far as I'm aware, yes." He said, not meeting my eyes once. He was up to something, but I had no idea what it was. "I'll take you over there before I go to the gym."  
"It's down the hall, Dimitri. I can manage."  
"The last time you walked the hall alone, you collapsed in nothing but a towel." He pointed out.  
"Then it's a good thing I'm dressed." I snapped, barging past him and heading to the door. I picked my keys up out of the bowl so that I could get back in and walked out, without so much as a goodbye.

As soon as Liss opened the door, she threw her arms around me. "Oh, Rose, I had no idea."  
"About what?" I asked, standing stiffly in her embrace.  
"They told me that you were taken but they never told me... they never told me the rest. I didn't know. I'm sorry."  
"Oh." I looked over her shoulder and glared at Christian, who looked like he'd been caught stealing something.  
"Christian and I have decided to put the wedding off until you're feeling better." She said proudly.  
I rolled my eyes and pushed her away, clenching my jaw as I forced the words out. "For God's sake, Liss. I don't care about your wedding. I don't care about your dresses or your flowers or damn speeches. I. Don't. Care."  
Lissa gasped and took a step back as if I'd slapped her, her jade eyes filling with tears. "Rose-"  
"I don't want to be your Maid of Honour. I don't want to give a speech. Quite frankly, I don't even want to be there. You can get married tomorrow or in ten years but I won't be there. I've given up enough of my life for you and standing in a church with a fake smile as I watch you throw your life away isn't going to be another thing that I had to the list of wasted days."  
"Rose!" Christian yelled, coming to wrap his arm around Lissa's shoulders. "There's no-"  
"No point to her marrying someone like you? I agree. Crazy runs in your family, right? Your parents, your aunt. How long will it be before you go off the deep end?" I had to keep going, I had to say it. "Then again, she's just as crazy. Maybe you are perfect for each other."  
"Get out." He said slowly. "I know that you've been through a lot, Rose, but this is uncalled for."  
"You don't know anything, fire boy. You might have seen it, but you didn't live it. You weren't there. You didn't have to... You don't know. You'll never know. You want me to go? Fine. I'll go."

My heart felt heavy in my chest as I let myself back in to the apartment and went to the phone to write a note for Dimitri.  
 _Dimitri,  
_ _Seeing as everyone feels the need to report my every move to you, you probably already know about the fight between me and Lissa. Between the two of you, I can barely breathe.  
I'm leaving Court. I don't want you to come after me, I don't want you to try and find me. I've not been taken or forced in to it. I'm leaving of my own free will. You of all people should know how important that is.  
A long time ago you told me that love fades. Well, ours had.  
_ _I'm sorry.  
_ _Rose.  
_ I ripped it off the pad and folded it once, scribbling his name on the front before taking it in to the bedroom and placing it gently on his pillow. I grabbed my bag from under the bed, left my key on the night stand and left the apartment with a feeling of dread.  
I was doing the right thing. I had to be. Pushing them away was the only way to keep them all safe.  
I head across Court towards Adrian's house and knocked on the door. When it was opened, I was surprised to see Daniella standing there with a smile on her face. "Good morning, Rose." She said happily. "Adrian is still in bed."  
I let out the breath that I didn't know I'd been holding and smiled. "That's okay, Lady Ivashkov. Could you tell him that I'm leaving Court for a few days and that I appreciate everything that he's done for me?"  
"Of course, but Rose, are sure that leaving Court is a good idea given your recent... experience?"  
"I need some time away." I said, unable to meet her eyes. "It'll be better for everyone this way."  
"Are you sure you don't want to speak to him yourself? I know that he'll want to say goodbye in person."  
"No, thank you. I really have to go." I said and turned away from her, walking away from the Ivashkov house and heading towards the gates.

Jason, an older guardian with greying hair, was on duty when I got there. He was a good man that took his job seriously, which wasn't a good thing for me right then.  
"Guardian Hathaway." He greeted me with a small nod. "Are you going somewhere?"  
"I'm leaving for a few days." I said with as much confidence as I could manage.  
"I don't have you on my list." He said without even looking at it. Of course he'd have memorised the list of authorised exits and he was right, I wasn't on the list. Still, I needed to get out of Court.  
"It was a last minute decision between the Queen and I. She's sent me on an errand."  
"Her Majesty usually joins you on errands." He pointed out, knowing that something was up. "I'll call it through and see what she says."  
"You do that." I said, trying my best to sound annoyed when really I was praying that she wouldn't answer the phone.  
He went in to the small building and picked the phone up, looking over at me as he pressed the numbers and then waited for it to be answered. He was still watching me as he spoke it to the phone. "Your Majesty, I'm sorry to disturb you. I have Guardian Hathaway at the gate. She's insisting that she has permission to leave Court on an errand but she's not on the list." His eyebrows shot up whilst she was answering him. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty but I'm not comfortable repeating that. Yes." He held the phone out to me and I took it from him.  
"Hello?"  
"Really, Rose? You speak to Christian and I in that way and then you try to go on an errand and expect me to tell them to let you leave?"  
"Really, Liss? Why are acting like you care?" I snapped. "You're more interested in your precious wedding than in me, remember?"  
"Fine, Rose. Do whatever you want. Next time you get poisoned or abducted, don't come crying to me about it. Put Guardian Matthews on."  
I held out the phone to Jason, who was staring at me as if I had two heads, and he held it up to his ear. "Yes, Your Majesty." He said once and then pressed the button to open the gate. I walked through it before he could say anything else. On the other side, I turned to take one last look at Court and then walked away from it for the last time.


	24. Chapter 24

Dimtri POV

Once Roza had gone to Vasilisa, I hadn't gone to the gym. Instead, I went to find Alberta and Stan. After Roza's dream, I couldn't ignore the possibilty that she was right and Eddie was missing. As promised, I'd called Alberta when Roza had gone in to the bedroom and told her of the situation and promised to look in to it. I was to meet her in the guardian's room as soon as I could.  
I went straight over there and instantly knew that something was wrong. She and Stan were speaking to each other in hushed tones, looking over a map and a sheet of paper. She looked up when I entered and frowned.  
"She was right, Belikov. Castile is missing."  
"For how long?"  
"The last communication that we had from him was five weeks ago. The GPS coordinates from his phone put him near the Breville." She narrowed her eyes at me. "What was he doing near that damned hotel, Belikov?"  
"He wanted to do something, something that would help Rose." I said, though Alberta and Stan both knew that I was lying.  
"So you sent him after that piece of-"  
"Did you? Alberta demanded. "Did you send him out there?"  
"He volunteered."  
She closed her eyes for a second, trying to contain her anger. "When did you last hear from him?"  
"Four weeks ago." I said, ashamed that I hadn't realised that something was wrong before now.  
"And you didn't think to mention this four weeks ago?"  
"Roza needed me." I said, though I knew that it was no defense.  
"I understand that Rose has been through a lot of unimaginable things but that doesn't excuse your recent behaviour. You risked the life of every guardian and three Moroi on the night that Rose was rescued and you've been absent from your duties ever since she returned. You're letting that girl pull you down, Belikov." Stan said.  
"You have no idea what she's been through, Alto." I said, trying to control my anger as best as I could. Apparently my control was weaker than ever because when he said that my Roza had probably brought it upon herself, I punched him.  
Alberta inserted herself between the two of us and pushed us away from each other. She turned to Stan first. "There is nothing that Rose Hathaway could have possibly done to have brought that fate upon herself. And you," She said, turning on me. "You have been absent recently but it's understandable under the circumstances. However, I can't condone sending Eddie Castile, of all people, after a strigoi like that. What were you thinking?"  
I didn't have an answer for her. Honestly, I hadn't been thinking clearly at the time, all of my thoughts consumed with rage and bloodlust.  
"We're going to have to send out a search party." She said.  
"For a guardian?" Stan asked, a thin trail of blood coming from the right side of his mouth, knowing that it went against procedure. If it had been a moroi out there, then a search party would have been guaranteed but it had never been heard of for a dhampir.  
"When the Queen hears about this, she'll order us to. We might as well stay one step ahead." Alberta sighed.  
We put a loose plan together, knowing that Vasilisa would have to approve everything before we moved. I pulled out my phone and dialled Roza's number to tell her about it but she didn't answer. The apartment phone wasn't answered either. I was going to go over the but Alberta stopped me.  
"Vasilisa has demanded an audience with us. We're to present her with the information that we have."  
"The Moroi won't be happy about this." Stan said as he gathered up the papers.  
"They don't have to be. It's the Queen's decision and we know what she'll decide." Alberta reminded him. "Let's go."

We made it to the meeting hall where Vasilisa was already sitting on her throne, Christian by her side. She was dressed in her 'Queen clothes' as Roza called them – her official clothes and her tiara – an unreadable look on her face.  
"Present your information." She said to Alberta.  
"Your Majesty, we have reason to believe that Guardian Castile is in danger. After the attack on Guardian Hathway, Guardian Belikov sent him to gather intel on the offending strigoi. He hasn't been heard from in four weeks. We have the last GPS coordinates from his phone and they put him less than a mile away from the Breville Hotel."  
Vasilisa turned to me, her eyes cold. "You sent him?"  
"Yes, Your Majesty. He wanted to do something and given Ros- Guardian Hathaway's-"  
"Rosemarie Hathaway is no longer a guardian, mine or anyone else's." She said flatly.  
Alberta looked at her in surprise, as did I. "Your Majesty, I'm not sure that I understand."  
" _Miss_ Hathaway is clearly incapable of protecting herself for long periods of time, which means that she's incapable of protecting me. I will be looking for a new guardian as soon as this meeting is over." She said it without a hint of emotion; no sadness or anger. She said it as if she wasn't remotely interested.  
I looked over to Christian and he shook his slightly. He'd tell me later, I was sure.  
"Of course." Alberta said. "With regards to Guardian Castile, what would you like us to do?"  
"There is nothing to do." Vasilisa said, surprising everyone. Even Stan was surprised. "We can't waste our resources on finding one guardian, or risk anyone else going missing or getting killed on behalf of Miss Hathaway. Guardian Castile made his choice when he left Court without permission, therefore, he is no longer our responsibility."  
"But Liss, it's Eddie. He's your-" Christian tried but she cut him off with a raised hand.  
"Is there anything else that you wish to discuss?"  
"No, Your Majesty."  
"Then you are excused. Guardian Belikov is to remain." She said, waiting for Alberta and Stan to leave with their papers before she continued. "I suppose you know that Rose has left Court?"  
"No, she hasn't. She was coming over to you." I said, though I knew that she was telling me the truth. Of course Roza had left Court.  
"She did and then she left." She said, slipping the tiara off her head and holding it in her lap.  
"There has to be more to it than that." I said, knowing that she wouldn't just leave.  
Christian stepped forward, placed his hand on Vasilia's shoulder and shrugged. "She came over, she said some horrible things and then she left. Liss got a call from the gate. Rose was there, telling them that she'd been sent on an errand by Liss and then she left."  
"You told the guardian to let her go?" I asked, amazed that they'd even consider it.  
"Yes. She doesn't want to be here so I let her go." Vasilisa said, rising from her throne. "She isn't my responsibilty, Dimitri. It isn't my job to look after her. My job is being the Queen – which she made me do! I didn't want this. I was supposed to be at Lehigh. I was supposed to be ordinary. I didn't want to be Queen, I didn't want to know that my father had had an affair and I didn't want to be stuck in Court forever but here I am, all because of Rose. She wanted to leave so I let her go."  
"Did you ask her to stay?" I asked.  
"Why would I? She's done nothing but make things difficult for all of us. Poor Rose is having an affair with her mentor, oh wait, now she's getting it on with Adrian. Oh, poor Rose ran of to Russia or wherever to stake her mentor when he bacame a strigoi. Rose made her best friend charm a stake with spirit, break in to a prison to get Victor out – who incidently terrorised her best friend – all to save her mentor. Oh, poor Rose was arrested and facing trial for killing Tatiana. Oh, now everyone busted her out and she's on the run. She's making her best friend run for Queen as a distraction for her whilst she digs up my family secrets. She comes back gets shot. She gets attacked, poisoned and kidnapped." She paused and took a deep breath. "Rose has made everyone else's life difficult by being around. Maybe now, things will settle down."  
I opened my mouth to list the things that Roza had done for her, but Christian beat me to it. "And what about when Rose took you away from Vlad's because she knew that you were in danger. What about when she, we, came to save you from Victor? What about when she saved us in Spokane? What about when she saved you even when she was in Siberia? What about when she found your sister so that you could be Queen? What about when she helped me pick out a ring just like your mother's because she knew that you loved it?" He said. He took her shoulders in his hands, turning her slightly so that she was facing him, and tilted her chin up so that she was looking in to his eyes. "What about Eddie? Liss, they are two of your best friends and I know that you love them. I don't know whether you're just angry right now or if it's the darkness that's making you say these things but you can't just abandon them."  
"They abandoned me, Christian. Rose left. Eddie left. What happens to them now is none of my concern." She said and walked out of his hold and out of the room, leaving Christian and I alone.  
"I'm pretty sure that what I'm about to say counts as treason," he said, "but you have to bring them back. We both know that Rose has probably gone after Eddie so there's a good chance that they'll be together."  
"I'm your guardian, Lord Ozera. I can't just leave."  
"I've got more than one guardian, Dimitri. Besides, Rose needs you more than I do right now." He said and then went after his future wife.


	25. Chapter 25

Rose POV

It had taken two days and every penny that I owned to get to Vegas, but I was finally there. I was standing outside the Breville Hotel, the sun beating down on me, as I tried to fight the urge to run away, to go home, to apologies to Lissa and tell her that I hadn't meant any of it. To tear the note up that I'd left for Dimitri so that he'd never see it. I couldn't though. For Eddie, I couldn't.  
I hoped that one day they'd understand that I'd been trying to save them from my fate. That I'd been trying to protect them from Nathan and his evil ways. That I hadn't want to Liss to have to live through what I'd been through. It would be easier for them if they hated me and I'd certainly made sure that she and Christian would. Dimitri was a different story.  
He'd be heartbroken that I'd left him, that I'd thrown his words right back at him, but he'd come looking for me because that's just who he was. He was a good man, better than I deserved. And he deserved better than me. He'd make sure that I was safe, regardless of anything that I said to him. He'd done it before, time and time again, as I had for him. This time though, I prayed to any deity that would listen to keep him away from me.  
I was still standing on the pavement when the sun began to set, determined to go inside. Eventually. I was too scared though. I stood there, my bag on my shoulder as I stared at the door, remembering all of the things that I'd had to go through in that place and hoping that Nathan had been kinder to Eddie.  
And then, the door opened.  
Nathan stepped outside and gave me a broad grin. "I knew you'd come back to me, Rosie."  
I swallowed back the bile that rose in my throat and didn't answer. I took a step back, my body trying to get away from him even as my mind screamed that I needed to stay, when a pair of hands grabbed my from behind, holding on to my arms. I looked over my shoulder and suddenly, it all made sense. The guardian that was holding me in place, the one that seemed to be everywhere. The one with a bun on top of his head. Gavin. It was Gavin that had been reporting back to Nathan. Gavin that had hit me over the head and taken me out of Court on the night of Liss and Christian's engagement.  
A woman stepped out from behind Nathan, a smug smile on her face. It took me a minute to realise that the black hair and blue-grey eyes were familiar to me. I'd never met her in person, but I'd seen her through Lissa's eyes when I'd been in Russia. A spirit user that had gone insane, bonded two people to her and tried to bond Liss to her as well. She'd cracked under the pressure of her spirit and had been carted to Tarazov or somewhere equally awful but no less than what she deserved. Avery Lazar.  
"We finally meet in person. I must say, you're not what I expected. Lissa made you out to be some kind of lethal weapon." She said, the scorn dripping from her words.  
Nathan turned to her and scowled. "You will treat Rosie with the respect that my mate deserves."  
Avery nodded but the smug gleam in her eyes never left as she looked me over. I knew what she was seeing because it's what I saw every day. She saw nothing. Nothing special. Nothing that made me stand out from a crowd. I'd lost so much weight since Nathan had taken me that I barely looked like me any more. My hair had lost its healthy glow and its bounce. My eyes no longer shone. I didn't even try to fight my way out of Gavin's hold, knowing that it was useless.  
"I've missed you, Rosie." Nathan said. "I've been trying to reach you but it's like you haven't slept in weeks."  
"I haven't." I said honestly. There was no point in lying to him about it. Being awake in a spirit dream is basically the same as being awake in the real world. The brain doesn't get a chance to rest. I'd spent months being awake in spirit dreams to avoid him and the nightmares and I was exhausted.  
"Don't worry, Rosie. You're back now. I'll take care of you."  
"Where's Eddie?" I asked.  
"Don't worry, you're friend is fine."  
"I'd like to see him, please."  
"All in due time, Rosie. Avery, you know what to do." He said, stepping aside so that she could move forward.  
She seemed to scanning the area, probably looking for auras, and then looked at me with a raised brow. Under normal circumstances, I'd have been pissed off that everyone else in the world seemed to be able to do that with their eyebrows, but I found that I just couldn't find the energy to care. The smug look was back. "She's alone."  
"Good." He said.  
"Apparently she's too stupid to bring back up." Avery said, earning herself a glare from Nathan.  
He turned slightly, hitting her so hard across the face that she fell down. "If I have to tell you again to speak to my mate with respect, Avery, I won't bother keeping you around."  
"Yes, sir." She mumbled, her hand clutching her cheek.  
I wanted to feel sorry for her – I knew how much pain Nathan could inflict on a person – but I just couldn't. After everything that she'd done, to me and to Liss, I just couldn't feel sorry for her. She'd put Gavim, whom I assumed she was bonded to, in Court to deliver the notes and terrorise me. She'd hurt Liss and tried to kill her. She'd done so many terrible things that I actually smiled. Avery Lazar deserved everything that Nathan had to offer her. She deserved to the know pain that I felt. She deserved to suffer the way that Liss and I had.  
He looked down at her with disdain. "Is it clearer outside of the dream?"  
"Yes. It's in the aura." She said, her eyes narrowing towards me.  
"Excellent." Nathan said, turning his red eyes on me and smiling. He held his hand out to me, waiting for me to take it. "Let's go and visit your friend, shall we?" He asked.  
I nodded and placed my hand in his, fighting the shudder of repulsion that racked my body. _This is for Eddie. I'm doing this for Eddie._ I told myself as I let him lead me away from Avery and in to the building.  
I was led down corridor after corridor and then finally, down a flight of stairs to a door that said 'BASEMENT'. Nathan opened the door and swept his hand out, signalling for me to go first as if he were some sort of gentleman. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dim light and then I saw him.  
He was tied to a chair, secured tightly with cable ties at his wrists and ankles. He had something white tied around his face to act as a gag. He had a black eye and bruising all over his arms and neck, but otherwise he looked unharmed. I breathed a sigh of relief when his eyes met mine, wide and alert.  
"Eddie." I said, trying to go to him, but Nathan tightened his grip on my hand and kept me in my place.  
"Rosie, it's not ladylike to rush to another man in that way." Nathan said sweetly. "You must ask your mate's permission."  
"Nathan, may I please go and check on him?" I asked. My voice sounded like it belonged to someone else, someone that I didn't know. It sounded dead, flat and monotone.  
"No. But I will assure you that he will be released with no additional injuries." Nathan said, giving my hand a tight squeeze as if he were trying to reassuring me.  
He looked over to Gavin and nodded once. He stepped forward with a knife and cut the ties tha held my friend in place. Eddie rubbed his wrists and then removed his gag, his eyes searching mine.  
"Rose, why are you here? You shouldn't have-" He tried, only to be cut off by Nathan.  
"Her name is Rosie, dhampir, and she came because she knows that I am her mate."  
He looked at me again, his eyes full of sorrow. "What about Dimitri?"  
I shrugged as if I didn't care. "I don't belong with Dimitri."  
"But-"  
"You should go." I said, praying that he'd leave and go back to Court where he'd be safe. "Please, Eddie.  
"I'm not going to leave you."  
"He isn't leaving, Rosie. He's going to be your personal guardian. He's going to watch over you in the days so that I can be with you in the nights. If he refuses my offer, then he will die."  
"Nathan, please-" I tried but Eddie cut me off.  
"Fine." Eddie said, stepping towards Nathan. "I'll be her guardian."  
"Are you sure?" Nathan asked. "It would mean protecting the thing that you hate most."  
"I... You're going to turn her?" Eddie asked quietly.  
"When it's time, Rosie will be awakened to join me in eternal life. I will share the gift with you too, if you vow to protect my queen."  
"Eddie, no." I said but he didn't hear me because he said, "I do" at the same time.  
"I knew there was a reason to keep him around." Nathan said happily, squeezing my hand. "Isn't this better, Rosie? To have someone you know guarding you when I can't be by your side?"


	26. Chapter 26

Dimitri POV

It had been two days since the meeting with Vasilisa. Two days since Christian had told me to defy the Queen and go after Roza anyway. Two days since I'd returned home to find an empty apartment and Roza's belongings missing. Two days since I'd found the note that she'd left for me.  
I'd had to read it three times to make sense of it, to try and pick it apart and see if there was something else that she was trying to tell me. I couldn't find anything though. My eyes kept coming back to that one line - _A long time ago you told me that love fades. Well, ours has.  
_ I remembered the day that I'd said those words to her, not long after I'd been restored to myself. I was no longer a strigoi but I felt an incredible amount of guilt for the things I'd done and honestly believed that my Roza would be better off if she didn't love me. I was an echo of the man that I'd been before, incapable of loving someone like her.  
Except I had loved her. Since the day that she'd tried to defend Vasilisa in Portland I'd loved her. Even when we couldn't be together, even when I'd been turned, even when I'd been restored. Thanks to Adrian's secret call, I knew that she knew this. I knew that she knew that I'd loved her, that I'd wanted her to be with me, that I'd wanted her to choose. It didn't make what I'd done okay, and I was glad that she'd managed to escape and restore me before I'd succeeded.  
Perhaps she was saying the same thing to me. Perhaps she was trying to hurt me, to throw the words back at me so that I wouldn't go after her. Or, perhaps I was holding on to a hope that was useless.  
Still, I folded the note up and slipped it in to the inside pocket of my duster before picking up my bag and going to Vegas, all the while hoping that my Roza would be okay.  
I drove to the airport in one of Court's cars, grateful to Christian for putting me on the 'allowed to leave' list. It had taken a couple of days but it was the only way that I was leaving Court without the Queen being notified. She'd find out sooner or later but I'd be far enough away from Court that she wouldn't be able to order me to go back straight away. Technically she wasn't my Queen, only the Queen of the Moroi, but when I was given a direct order I had little choice but to obey it.  
I was hoping that by that point, Christian would be able to convince her that going after Roza and Eddie was the right thing to do.

I arrived at the airport and went through the check in with two hours to spare before my flight, so I wandered around the shops for a while, buying a new Western novel to read on the flight and large cup of hot chocolate. It wasn't how I liked it, doubled up so that it was rich, but I was hot and gave me something to do as I scanned the area.  
It was hard someone like me to blend in, being so tall and intimidating, so I found that hiding in plain sight was the best option. People would look once or twice at me and then avert their eyes, usually deciding that they didn't want any trouble. But then there were the ones that didn't have the same sense of self-preservation.  
"Look, Mommy, a giant!" A little girl said, tugging on her mother's sleeve. "Mommy. Mommy, look!"  
"Not now, Lauren." The woman said, batting her child's hand away as she tried to pay for their tray of food. The girl continue staring at me, brushing her too long fringe out of her eyes. I gave a smile and then walked away, slowly heading towards my boarding gate.  
I still had an hour or so before they would be calling my flight, so I went to sit down. I only managed to sit for a few minutes before the nervous energy took over. Thoughts of Roza took over in my mind and all I could do was wonder how things had ended up in such a sorry state.  
When I'd first met her, she'd been strong and fierce even though she was suffering from blood loss after allowing Vasilisa to drink from her. She'd attempted to protect her friend and continued to do so even when I'd taken them back to St. Vladimir's Academy. She'd fought bravely to save her from Victor Dashkov's clutches. She'd done her best to protect her friends when they'd been taken by strigoi in Spokan – the loss of her friend, Mason, had hurt her deeply but she'd survived it. She fought as well as any guardian when the academy had been attacked by strigoi, she'd gone to Russia to stake me when I'd become one of them. She was a wonderful, brave woman.  
Any person who had been through what she had would break eventually, but what Nathan had done to her was beyond comprehension. Still, I knew Roza well enough to know that she would go back to him to save her friends. He had Eddie and she would trade herself for him. It was one of the many things that I both loved and hated about her.

"Mommy, look. It's the giant." A familiar voice said loudly. She was further up the plane, watching me make my way towards her. And her row. And my seat.  
"Lauren, don't be rude." Her mother said as I put my bag in the overhead storage.  
I gave the mother a polite smile and then sat next to Lauren, pulling the book I'd purchased out of my duster pocket. The plane hadn't even taken off before I was bombarded with questions.  
"Why are you so tall?" Lauren asked, craning her neck to look at me even though we were both sitting.  
"My mother made me eat all of my vegetables." I said, knowing which answer were appropriate and which weren't. Explaining about dhampirs and Moroi was not one of the appropriate ones. Being raised with sisters and having nieces and nephews had given me enough experience to answer the questions in the right way.  
"If I eat all of my vegetables, will I be as big as you?" She asked with the innocence that only children possesed.  
"Possibly."  
"You're the biggest man that I've ever, ever seen. Ever."  
I smiled at her. "Are you going on holiday?"  
"No. My aunt loped with Chip and Mommy isn't happy. We're going to talk to Ruby and make her see..." She turned to her mother. "What are we doing, Mommy?"  
"I'm sure the nice man doesn't want to hear about Aunt Ruby and Chip, Lauren." She said, clearly embarrassed that Lauren was telling a complete stranger their business.  
"But-"  
"Lauren." The woman said the girl's name through gritted teeth.  
"Fine." She mumbled, turning back to me. "Are you going on holiday?"  
"No. I'm going to see my... girlfriend." I'd never liked using such a juevenile term to describe my relationship with Roza. She wasn't a 'girl', she was a woman and our relationship, even whilst it had been secretive, was far from childish. I had loved Roza from the beginning and I'd come to respect her over the years. No, Roza wasn't my girlfriend, she was my partner. Someone that I wanted to spend my life with.  
"Is she pretty?"  
"No. She's beautiful." I said, smiling at the little girl. "Would you like to see a picture of her?"  
She nodded, so I pulled my wallet out of my pocket. Behind a piece of clear plastic was my Roza, laughing at something out of the frame. Her hair was long and loose, hanging half way down her back in waves. She was wearing one of my sweaters that was ten times too big for, the sleeves rolled over four times so that he hands were visible. It was a picture that Christian had taken and given to me and it had been in my wallet ever since.  
"You're a lucky man." Lauren's mother said, peering over at the picture.  
"Yes." I said, staring at my Roza. "I am."


	27. Chapter 27

Rose POV

"Please, please tell me that this isn't actually happening." Eddie said when we were finally alone.  
"Don't, Eddie." I said, too tired to get in to it with him.  
"Don't what? Don't point out that you're insane? Because you are, you know."  
"Probably."  
"There's no probably about it. You voluntarily came back here. Here. To the thing that..." He trailed off, unable to say the words.  
"I know."  
"Why?"  
"Because he had you."  
"I'm not important, Rose."  
"You are to me." I said, looking up at him for the first time. "I can't be responsible for another one of my friends dying."  
"That's ridiculous."  
"Is it? Because we both know that Mason would still be alive if he hadn't have come back for me."  
"You don't know that. And the only reason it was him that went back for you was because I was out of it and Christian and Mia are Moroi."  
"And because he loved me."  
"Rose-"  
"Don't 'Rose' me. He loved me and he died. Dimitri loved me and he was turned in to a strigoi. Lissa loved me and she's been through so much because of me. Everyone that loves me gets hurt or dead. I'm better off out of their lives."  
"Better off here? To be Nathan's... whatever he wants you to be and then get turned in to one of them?"  
"I'm hoping that he'll just get bored and kill me."  
"And that's okay with you?"  
I shrugged and turned away from him, heading towards the bathroom. He stopped me just as I was about to close the door.  
"So you're suicidal now?" He asked, unable to believe what I was saying to him. "And what about Dimitri and Lissa?"  
"I made sure that they wouldn't come looking for me."  
"And your parents?"  
"What about them?"  
"You told them what you were doing?"  
"No. I didn't even say goodbye to them." I said, suddenly realised that I hadn't even thought of them when I'd been making my plan. Abe, who felt so guilty that he'd stayed away from me since I'd been let out of the hospital, and Janene, who'd tried her best to help had found herself unequipped to handle my constant mood swings, had been the last people on my mind. And I felt terrible.  
"Oh, Rose." He tried to come to me but I shut the door in his face, turning the shower on so that he wouldn't hear me crying.  
Surely he knew that I didn't want to be here? That I was terrified of what was going to happen. Sure, Eddie was my 'personal guardian' but we both knew that he couldn't save me from Nathan. There were more of them than there were of us, plus Avery and Gavin. We were screwed no matter which way I looked at it and all I'd left behind was people who either hated me or would never forgive me for leaving. I was a horrible, awful person.  
There was a knock on the bathroom door after a while, followed by Eddie's voice. "Rose, uh, Rosie. Nathan is here for you."  
"I'm coming." I said, splashing my face with cold water before going out to him.

He was surrounded by boxes and bags, a proud smile on his face. "I come baring gifts."  
"Oh?" I said, trying my best to sound like I was interested.  
"Your new life starts today, with me, so I decided that you'd be needing new things. I have bought you everything that you could possibly need to be happy." He said, sweeping his arms towards the bags and boxes around him.  
"Thank you." I said quietly.  
He looked at me expectantly and then frowned. "Don't you want to see what's in them? Talia assured me that they're all the height of fashion."  
"Um, I'm just a little tired right now." I said, only to be elbowed by Eddie who had been stood by my side the entire time. "But, if it'll make you happy..."  
I went towards him, trying to ignore the sickness that washed over me. I knelt down in front of him and opened the bags and boxes, pulling out shoes and dresses  
that were all red. Lacy lingerie in red and black, the kind that I'd only ever worn for Dimitri. Make up, hair brushes, straighteners and a hair dryer. Dressing gowns, slippers, fluffy socks. A toothbrush and toiletries...  
I felt dizzy all of a sudden and Eddie rushed to my side, wrapping his arm around my waist and helping me to stand.  
"Rose, are you all right?" He asked, taking me to sit on the bed.  
I nodded, unable to find my words. Nathan cleared his throat, a smug grin on his face when I looked up at him.  
"Perhaps you'd like something to eat? I've informed my staff to take better care of you this time." He said, holding his hand out to me expectantly. I took it, allowing him to pull me up off the bed and leading me out of the room. "Mr Castile, you can put Rosie's things away whilst she's eating."

He led me to the dining room and as soon as I sat down a large plate of chicken pasta and a side salad were placed in front of me. A large glass of water and one of pure orange juice quickly followed it. Nathan sat opposite me, watching me closely.  
"Eat up, Rosie. You need your strength."  
"I'm not hungry." I said, even though I was starving. If I were at home I'd have ordered a pizza or something, not this healthy stuff. I avoided it like the plague at the best of times.  
"You will eat it." He said, his voice soft but stern, the same tone that Janene had used on me so many times over the years when she was angry but didn't want to cause a scene.  
I picked up my fork, forcing myself to eat it one bit at a time. Chew, swallow, chew swallow. I'd gotten half way through when I couldn't eat any more and put my fork down.  
"Have you had enough, Rosie?"  
I nodded and picked up my water, sipping it slowly so that I wouldn't have to talk to him.  
"Would you like desert?"  
"No, thank you."  
"Very well. I'd like to talk to you about something." He said. I got the feeling that he was treating this as some sort of date and not a hostage situation, but I nodded any way. "Seeing as you're here as my mate, I'd like to make it official. We should get married."  
I stared at him, needing a minute to make sure that I'd heard what he was saying. "Married?"  
"Yes. Of course, it isn't necessary for strigoi to be married to their mate but I understand that in dhampir, Moroi and human relationships it is essential. It means that their relationship is recognised by others. I want everyone to recognise the importance of our mating. You will be my Queen, Rosie. Our marriage will let everyone know that you are mine, that you are to never be touched by another." he said seriously.  
And then, my chicken pasta was threatening to make a reappearance. I excused myself quickly and rushed out of the dining room, looking for a bathroom but it was too late. I collapsed on to my hands and knees, throwing up everything in to my stomach on to the navy blue carpet in the middle of the hall. I stayed there until there was nothing left, dry heaving until tears ran down my face.  
"Have you finished?" Nathan's voice asked from behind me, cold and annoyed.  
I nodded but didn't dare look up at him or even move. The ends of my hair were dangling in my vomit and I desperately needing to wash my mouth out, but I didn't dare move. Instead, Nathan's cold arms wrapped themselves around, picking me up off the ground effortlessly and changing my position that he was carrying me bridal style.  
"Talia!" He called, making me jump in his arms. "Clean this up." He ordered before marching down the hall towards my room.  
He kicked the door open, startling Eddie, and then laid me gently on the bed. He picked up one of the bags he'd brought and pulled out a grey blanket and then covered me up with it.  
"What did you do to her?" Eddie demanded, getting right in his face.  
I groaned and tried to tell him to stop but my throat was burning.  
"I did nothing, dhampir. She's sick, is all. She needs rest and fluids and then she needs to bathe."  
"Rose doesn't get sick." He said.  
" _Rosie_ has had a trying day." He insisted. "I suggest you learn your place, dhampir. The only reason that you're still alive is because it would hurt my Queen greatly if I were to kill you but it doesn't mean that I won't." He turned away from Eddie and perched on the end of the bed. "Sleep now, Rosie. Everything will be better when you wake."  
I smiled, sure that I was hallucinating. I had to be. Nathan actually looked as if he... cared. I watched as Nathan walked out of my room, glaring at Eddie as he went, and closed the door gently behind him.

When I woke up, Eddie was sitting in a wooden chair by the window, staring out at the sunlit garden. He must have opened the black out shades at some point. I must have been more tired than I'd thought.  
I forced myself to sit up. "Ugh. What time is it?" I asked, my throat still burning.  
"A little after eleven." He said, still staring out of the window.  
"How long was I out?" I asked, running my hands through my hair. The ends were stiff where the vomit had dried.  
"Three hours, give or take." He said.  
"Are you all right?" I asked.  
"I was about to ask you the same thing. You seem to be pretty happy for saying you're with him." He said, the venom in his voice clear.  
"Eddie-"  
"You smiled at him."  
"I was hallucinating."  
"Oh? What did you see?"  
"Nathan asked me to marry him." I said as a shudder took control of my body for a moment. "And then I was sick, though by the state of my hair, I'm pretty sure that that actually happened. And then he picked me up and brought me to bed, tucked me in and was a gentleman – or as close as a strigoi can be. I know, it's crazy but I swear, that's what I saw."  
"That's because it happened, Rose."  
My mouth hung open. It was unbelievable. Nathan – strigoi, murderer, rapist – was capable of being a gentleman.  
"He asked you to marry him?" Eddie asked. I could see in his face that wasn't sure if I was being serious or not.  
"Sort of. It wasn't a proposal like Christian's but he said that he wanted everyone to know that I was his. It'd be more like a brand of ownership than a declaration of anything resembling love." I said, suddenly wishing that it was Dimitri that had asked me. It was insane, seeing as I was so against marrying him, but it was Dimitri that I wanted. Dimitri that I would always want.


End file.
